++ FYI, the wines below are all available for pre-sale, which means they haven't quite reached us yet. As soon as they do, we'll get them to you as fast as we can.
And, in case you're wondering, there are no limits on what or how many of each you can buy. But sales, as always, are via the website or in-store only –
no phone calls, holds, DMs, etc. Happy hunting! ++
The Ar.Pe.Pe story technically began around 1860, at the time of Italian unification, when the Pelizzatti family started making wine in Valtellina, on the cusp of Switzerland. Like many others in the mountainous northern Italian region, they built their name on chiavennasca (the local name for nebbiolo), but barely a century later, the label succumbed to overproduction and fell into a state of disrepair.
In a bid to restore the family’s reputation, Arturo Pelizzatti Perego set up a new winery bearing his initials in 1984 and devoted himself to doing things the old-fashioned way: long macerations, extended ageing in old chestnut casks, all done by hand in the ancestral cellars. Today, those traditions are carried on by the fifth generation, Arturo’s children – Isabella, Guido and Emanuele – and the wines just get better and better.
This is some ridiculously hard yakka: vines are anywhere between 50 and 100 years old, and the steep, terraced vineyards that make up the family’s 13 hectares stretch from 400 to 700 metres above sea level. You want nebbiolo with an alpine accent that’s more delicate, mineral-led and distinct from its Piedmontese counterparts? This is it.
It’d be an outright insult to call the 2023 Rosso di Valtellina an ‘entry-level wine’, so let’s call it a value proposition far greater than the sum of its parts: pulverised raspberries, crushed violets, hibiscus petals, cacao nibs. So much prettiness, lightness and lift, all carried out on a bed of silty tannins. One rung up the ladder lies the 2022 Il Pettirosso, a blend of fruit from the upper-echelon vineyards with riper tannins, pointier acid and a touch more depth. Think cranberries, sour cherries, dried herbs, worn leather and turned earth. Woof.
Onto the Superiore bottlings from the three crus now, each of which of brings something special to the table. The 2022 Grumello Rocca del Piro hails from a topsoil-heavy site between 350 and 500 metres, and it’s the freshest and friskiest of the lot, with a palate like panforte, sweetly spiced with flavours of amaro, Morello cherry and orange peel. Climb a tad higher and you’re at the steepest, rockiest parts of the terraces, home of the 2022 Sassella Stella Retica. ‘Rocky’ is very much the byword, but the minerality and pebbly tannins are livened up by the perfume of wild strawberries, dried roses, wild fennel and cool mint. Firmer and deeper still is the 2022 Inferno Fiamme Antiche, which takes on a darker, red-fruited complexion, laced with liquorice, potpourri and a bit of volcanic grunt. Straight fire.
Finally, we come to the Riserva bottlings, produced only in outstanding years. These are held back from the 2018 vintage, which started with a wet winter and culminated in a dry, warm summer – key components, in other words, for ideal ripeness. Vivid red fruits are the focus in the slinky and sinewy 2018 Grumello Buon Consiglio Riserva, but there’s a meatiness and chewiness beneath it all that really makes it sing. There’s even more grunt, grit, earthiness and spice to be found in the 2018 Grumello Sant’Antonio Riserva, while the 2018 Inferno Sesto Canto Riserva cranks the volume higher, broadcasting all the drama of the rocky, steep and exposed site without losing sight of delicacy or finesse.
Of the three cuvées from the Sassella cru, the 2018 Sassella Nuova Regina Riserva is the please-all-comers pick, flush with sour-sweet cherry cola character, minty freshness and a sheath of lacy granitic tannin. For something slightly more assertive, go the 2018 Sassella Rocce Rosse Riserva for its bolder flavour profile or the 2018 Sassella Ultimi Raggi Riserva for its distinctively savoury edge, all dried leaves and woody spice. Buono.
(For the keen-eyed collectors amongst you, there are four Riserva bottlings from the unicorn 2016 vintage still kicking about, too – the 2016 Grumello Buon Consiglio Riserva, 2016 Grumello Sant’Antonio Riserva, 2016 Sassella Ultimi Raggi Riserva and 2016 Inferno Sesto Canto Riserva – all of which are sailing right into their optimum drinking window. Bust out your decanters.)