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Coste della Sesia Rosso Uvaggio Proprietà Sperino 2020 NY
Tasting Notes: A traditional Lessona blend of Nebbiolo, Vespolina, and a bit of the local Croatina, this is the tenth Uvaggio that includes Nebbiolo from the one hundred year-old Tenute Sella vi... neyard, which once again delivered a tiny crop of hyper concentrated grapes. In the glass, the wine has a violet-tinged ruby-red color, which warms to bright mahogany at the edge. Dried red currants, ripe persimmon, chocolate-covered cherries, and balsam fir alternate with more fleeting suggestions of fresh cut flowers, Alpine herbs, and white truffles as the nose evolves in the glass. On the palate, the wine is sleek and medium bodied, like a ripe, youthful Chambolle-Musigny, with high toned red berry flavors seasoned with rosemary, bay leaf, and thyme, all framed by polished, fine-grained velvety tannins, and radiant saline-infused minerality. Not to mention, 95 points from Decanter. Drink now – 2035. Read More
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According to Il Corriere Vinicolo, Italy’s “wine Wall Street Journal,” the “Spanna” (Nebbiolo) grown a hundred years ago by Paolo De Marchi’s great, great uncle was the most expensive wine in Italy. Today, after ten years spent replanting the vineyards and renovating the winery, Paolo and Luca have given new life to Proprietà Sperino, and stimulated a renaissance of viticulture in this historic wine-growing area. The eight hectares of vines at Proprietà Sperino are mostly in the district of Ori, so-called for the deep yellow marine sand that lies on the sun-drenched, sub-alpine plateau of Orolungo. If you scoop up the soil only a half-hour after a rainstorm, it slips through your fingers like sand in an hourglass.
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The wines of Piemonte are noted as far back as Pliny's Natural History. Due to geographic and political isolation, Piemonte was without a natural port for most of its history, which made exportation treacherous and expensive. This left the Piemontese with little incentive to expand production. Sixteenth-century records show a mere 14% of the Bassa Langa under vine - most of that low-lying and farmed polyculturally. In the nineteenth century the Marchesa Falletti, a French woman by birth, brought eonologist Louis Oudart from Champagne to create the first dry wines in Piemonte. Along with work in experimental vineyards at Castello Grinzane conducted by Camilo Cavour - later Conte di Cavour, leader of the Risorgimento and first Prime Minister of Italy - this was the birth of modern wine in the Piedmont. Outside of the Langhe hills (surrounding Alba), the most prominent area of wine production in Piemonte is the chain of sub-alpine hills that run through the provinces of Novara and Vercelli. Here the Romans introduced spionia, an ancient variety that thrived in foggy climates. Whether this was in fact a genetic ancestor of Nebbiolo is unknown, but the derivation of its name, Spanna, is now how the locals refer to this noble grape. The Morainic soils, mostly deposited along the Sesia River, are of glacial origin and produce more medium-bodied, aromatically driven nebbiolo than in the Langhe. The appellations of note in Novara are Gattinara, Lessona and Bramaterra, and in Vercelli are Ghemme, Fara, Boca, and Szizzano.
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The Nebbiolo grape has played a prominent role in Piemontese wine production, since at least the 13thCentury. Known primarily as the grape of Barolo and Barbaresco wines, Nebbiolo is also a main varietal in Roero, Lessona, Ghemme, Gattinara, Valtellina, and Franciacorta wines. Nebbiolo vines are late-budding, late-ripening, and can be finicky throughout growing season, so the production of high quality grapes requires careful vineyard management on the part of the grower.
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Roasted game birds and braised or roasted beef have been wonderful with this wine. It works particularly well with wild mushroom, red wine sauces.
