Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Game, smoke, earth, strawberries and bright licorice root depth. The attack is soft and elegant, with silky tannins and refreshing acidity. A chewy, vivid finish. Drink or hold.
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Wine Spectator
Dense and tightly meshed, with taut, chalky tannins and a racy streak of minerality married to flavors of dried black cherry, medicinal herbs, orange peel and milled pepper. Reveals savory hints of tobacco and smoke that push through and linger on the persistent finish. Let this open in the glass or decant for full enjoyment. Drink now through 2031.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Ar. Pe. Pe. 2016 Valtellina Superiore Grumello Riserva Buon Consiglio shows an overripe component with desiccated fruit, potpourri, flinty stone and tart plum with some bitterness. The mouthfeel is a bit flatter overall, with greenhouse herb and leafy vegetable. It is smooth and accessible in terms of mouthfeel and is ready to drink now. Winemaking is extreme, with a very extended 102 days of maceration in wood, followed by 34 months of aging in a combination of chestnut barrel, oak and stainless steel.
Responsible for some of the most elegant and age-worthy wines in the world, Nebbiolo, named for the ubiquitous autumnal fog (called nebbia in Italian), is the star variety of northern Italy’s Piedmont region. Grown throughout the area, as well as in the neighboring Valle d’Aosta and Valtellina, it reaches its highest potential in the Piedmontese villages of Barolo, Barbaresco and Roero. Outside of Italy, growers are still very much in the experimentation stage but some success has been achieved in parts of California. Somm Secret—If you’re new to Nebbiolo, start with a charming, wallet-friendly, early-drinking Langhe Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba.
Containing an exciting mix of wine producing subregions, Lombardy is Italy’s largest in size and population. Good quality Pinot noir, Bonarda and Barbera have elevated the reputation of the plains of Oltrepò Pavese. To its northeast in the Alps, Valtellina is the source of Italy’s best Nebbiolo wines outside of Piedmont. Often missed in the shadow of Prosecco, Franciacorta produces collectively Italy’s best Champagne style wines, and for the fun and less serious bubbly, find Lambrusco Mantovano around the city of Mantua. Lugana, a dry white with a devoted following, is produced to the southwest of Lake Garda.