Valtellina to Verona in a glass
Aug 14, 2024
Chiavenna & Valtellina
Our first stop was the incredibly beautiful town of Chiavenna, right at the northern tip of Lombardia, a few kilometers shy of the Swiss border. Chiavenna stole a piece of my heart from the moment we arrived. Mountains (proper ones), waterfalls, lakes, culinary delights and of course our first glimpse of the spectacularly steep terraced Chiavanesca Vineyards!
The main grape variety is Nebbiolo, which in this valley takes on the name Chiavennasca, acquiring characteristics that are slightly different from those found in Piedmont. Many believe that the name derives from the local dialect ciu vinasca, meaning 'more vinous'.
The wines here are an incredible reflection of the terrior, carved out of the mountains, they have a cool air of freshness, chiseled purity and wonderful expressive fruit.
Before I arrived, like any wine enthusiast, I had drawn a list of producers that I wanted to taste whilst there, and it didnāt take long to start ticking them off. The best thing about these places are that they are still relatively unknown to the rest of the wine world, even outside of this region you will struggle to find the wines in the rest of Italy. However, at source the goods are available and priced very nicely to be taken advantage of!
We are very lucky in the UK to have access to such a wide range of wines, this probably comes as a result of our proud multicultural society and not until recently being a wine producing nation.
After we left Chiavenna we journeyed an hour or so to the town of Sondrio, right in the heart of Valtellina. A steep valley where the southern facing slope is adorned with terraces of vines and the northern facing slope an alpine forest. This place is truly unique.
Sandro Fay
I had booked a meeting with Elena Fay & Marco Fay, one of the producers whoās wines we had tasted and were at the top of my list. What a day we had. We spent the morning in amongst the vines, some of which are at an altitude of 800m and incredibly steep. There are no machines here and the viticulture is minimal intervention. The wines are pure and beautiful, and we had already sampled a few in the days prior!
After a few hours in the vines, the sun had come out, and with the temperatures now in the mid 30ās Elena decided that we should retire for lunch at her husbands restaurant near by. We were treated to some fantastic older vintages of my favourite Sandro Fay wines.
Carteria in particular is my favourite cuvee, a single vineyard wine at about 500m altitude from the Valgella sub zone. Stunning wine.
AR PEPE
Another one of the producers wines that took my breath away whilst we were there, were the fabled wines of AR Pepe. The first bottle of our holiday was the 2016 Rocce Rosse, served slightly chilled, was a knockout and delivered on everything I hoped it would. Tension, complexity, purity of fruit and poise, a ballet dancer in the world of Nebbiolo if you will. We tasted many AR PEPE wines whilst in Chiavenna and they all delivered.
The Perego family have been growing grapes on the granite terraces of Valtellina since 1860. Production is very much of the old-school methods and labour is intense, the hills making it very difficult to reach the fruit at all. Everything across their thirteen hectares of vines is done by hand and in the cantina the family exercises a soft touch with famous patience. Favouring long, gentle macerations, the wines are left to rest in large, old chestnut casks until they are deemed ready for release.
Unfortunately they were out of town so we werenāt able to visit them, this time.
The transparency of the grape, the singular landscape and the Peregosā gentle hand in the cantina make for wines that are up there with Italyās greats and we are delighted to have some of the wines with us here at Chesterās!
Verona & The Charismatic Carlo Meroni
We finished our trip in Verona, Amarone country. Usually these wines are not my kind of wines, Iād actually said to Karla that I was worried about what we would be drinking after the fresh wines from the mountains, how wrong was I?!
We had a meeting with Carlo Meroni booked in, his Valpolicella Classico Velluto is one of our best selling wines, Jo loves to sell it and drink it!
We met Carlo at the winery in the blazing sunshine, and after a whistle stop tour of the vines that stretch back up the hill along side the forest behind the winery, we take refuge in the cellar/tasting room and get straight into it.
One day you will meet Carlo at Chesterās and I promise it will be a lasting memory. His charm, smile and emphatic passion for what he does makes a lasting impression, and thatās before you even taste the wines!
We had an amazing time tasting through a lot of wine, even having a masterclass in older vintages of Amarone back to 1998.
I can honestly say that Carloās wines are the finest wines Iāve tasted from the region, there are no other wines that have the same elegance that Meroni wines possess.
Over the following days we jaunted around Verona hoovering up Meroni wines in all the restaurants we visited, who else makes a Valpolicella Ripasso that you can drink from an ice bucket whilst maintaining elegance and purity?
We spent the following evening with Carlo and his partner Stefania in Vina Bottega, a must visit if ever in Verona, ask to see the cellar. Some great bottles were consumed and I ate more Tiramisu than imaginable. If you notice the extra bit of weight Iām carrying since returning, itās almost certainly that Tiramisu, and Iād do it all over againā¦
Anyhow, the Meroni wines are here and available, along with Sandro Fay & ARPEPEā¦ we suggest you go buy some :)
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