| By
Jim Clarke
December 2006
When I was first learning about wine, my teachers
repeated the contrast between cool climates – which yielded
higher acid, lighter bodied wines – and hotter climates (full-bodied,
lower acidity) like a mantra; it’s one of those basic divisions
that help you make sense of wine’s variety. For classmates
whose sense of geography and climate was unsure, there was a shorthand
trick: Do you go there to swim or to ski? If you know that, it tells
you enough about the climate to start making some assumptions about
the wine.
But every rule has an exception. Valtellina, in
northern Italy, is a studded with ski resorts; there are about 250
miles of slopes. The peaks remain snow-covered all year long, and
glaciers allow year-round skiing in some spots. Nevertheless, a
25-mile amphitheater of southern-facing mountains allows winemakers
with the necessary energy and stamina to make some of Italy’s
most individual wines, rich and complex.
The mountains line the Adda River, which works
its way up from Lake Como. It brings with it the breva, a warming
wind which heats up the Adda Valley and prolongs the autumn so that
grapes have time to ripen (It also makes the northern part of the
lake a great spot for windsurfing). The terraced vineyards lie on
the north side of the river, facing south; they squeeze out every
drop of sunlight available. Even when the sun has passed, the rocks
retain much of the heat and keep the vineyards warm into the evening.
Piedmont
meets the Veneto
Still, despite number of advantages Valtellina
owes to its peculiar geography, it seems like a difficult place
to grow winegrapes. All the work has to be done by hand because
of the steep mountainsides and terraces. Apparently the growers
are gluttons for punishment: to complement the region’s physical
challenges, they grow Nebbiolo, a grape so temperamental and late-ripening
that it’s rarely seen outside of Piedmont, where it contributes
to the fame of Barolo and Barbaresco. Even New World producers who
yearn to work with the finicky Pinot Noir seem reluctant to tackle
Nebbiolo. But in Valtellina they have been growing Nebbiolo (locally
called Chiavannasca) here since the 14th century.
If their grape choice matches with their neighbors
to the west, some of their winemaking techniques look toward their
eastern neighbor, the Veneto. There the winemakers sometimes like
to pick the grapes and dry them out in a barn, concentrating the
sugars and flavors to make a fuller and more intense wine. The Valtellinese
would be foolish not to try it for themselves, because the breva
wind not only helps warm the vineyards; it’s also perfect
for drying out the grapes while limiting the threat of rot. These
are the Sforsato or Sfurzat wines; they have the same intensity
and rich fruits of the Veneto’s Amarone wines, but retain
the Nebbiolo grape’s tannins and tar, lavender, and spicy
aromas.
The non-Sforsato wines are generally leaner and
gentler than a typical Barolo or Barbaresco, but they’re not
lightweights. The wines labeled Superiore come from one of four
vineyards: Sassella, Valgella, Grumello, and Inferno (the name suggests
the heat of the vineyard in the summer). The Inferno wines are generally
the most powerful of the non-Sforsato wines, while Valgella’s
high-altitude vineyards creates more delicate, aromatic wines.
There are only twenty-something producers in Valtellina,
and not all of them export their wines. Keep an eye out for the
following:
Nino Negri
Aldo Rainoldi
Plozza
Sandro Fay
Triacca
Arturo Pellizatti Perego
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