Thanks, Jeff. Yes, it’s like an undiscovered Beatles album.
Come to think of it, areas like northern Piedmont are no different from Barolo or Burgundy decades, just behind them. How many bottlers of Burgundy were there in 1960? How many of Barolo in 1970 or even '80?
Since you asked for an educational thread, let me be a bit pedantic and note that Northern Piedmont (Alto Piemonte in Italian) is the region. Gattinara, Ghemme, Carema, and Boca are communes or villages. Spanna is the local name for Nebbiolo, so it is like Nebbiolo di Langhe.
Here are notes from a Vallana tasting I attended a few month back:
http://www.finewinegeek.com/tn/2013-05-09_Rare_Vallana_delPosto/
The last wine there, the 1954 Antonio Vallana e Figlio Spanna del Piemonte was much better than I would expect for almost all B&B from this vintage. It is my birth year, so I have looked.
When you talk about flirting with modernism, not at Vallana. For example, all these wines 1954-2010 were pressed on the same press and the winemaking is unchanged. They did say that being forced to only use 3 varieties has hurt as there were previously hundreds of varieties in their vineyards that went into their wines.
This thread is very educational and I am going to make it a point to try a number of wines mentioned in the thread. In addition, yesterday I coincidentally purchased a mixed case of wine from this area. The case consists of 6 2008 Le Piane from Boca, 3 2009 Ferrando Carema White Label and 3 2007 Antoniolo Osso San Grato. Based on some of the opinions expressed by earlier posters, I look forward to trying these wines.
Le Piane is very good. I had an '04 last year that was super, and would have benefitted from quite a bit more age.
Agreed on the Le Piane, Oliver. Did an event with Christoph a few months ago and he brought an '86 and '90. They were, of course, before he took over the winery, but they were exceptional. The '86 still had good verve and density albeit translucent and light-to-medium body. The '90 had more of everything but a considerable elegance as well. Very good learning experiences with those wines with age.
Of course the vertical of '04-'08 was excellent too. Christophe has a very clean style (he’s Swiss, makes sense!).
His Boca is particularly good. I am not a big fan of Croatina, which can be a bit coarse, but I love the effect of Vespolina with Nebbiolo (Vespolina is not half bad by itself, for that matter). The Boca is Nebbiolo and Vespolina, if I recall correctly.
Christoph showed me a photo of the area taken about a hundred years ago; it was entirely planted to vines, as it was a famous terroir then. When he took over not long ago it was largely abandoned. I think this region has enormous potential, and some very good to excellent wines are already being made. I love seeing ‘13%’ on an ageworthy Nebbiolo these days, isn’t happening in the Langhe.
The best info I can find says “The wine is a blend of 45-70% Nebbiolo, 20-40% Vespolina and up to 20% of Uva Rara.”
Ken,
The Le Piane website is a bit thin, but a note of a recent tasting of the '12 from barrel agrees with my recollection from tasting there a few years ago: ‘L’uvaggio, è quello “canonico” stabilito dal Cerri: 85% nebbiolo, 15% vespolina.’ Interestingly this is very similar to the blend in Sella’s Lessonas, which are 80% Nebbiolo, 20% Vespolina. The Consorzio’s ‘disciplinario’ for the Boca appellation states: ‘Vitigni: Nebbiolo (localmente chiamato Spanna) al 70% – 90%; sono ammesse Uva Rara e Vespolina, da sole o congiuntamente, max. 30%.’
I don’t know much about Uva Rara, other than that’s a bodacious name, but Vespolina makes very good wine by itself. It’s apparently related to Nebbiolo.
Oliver, my research yesterday bears out your advice. Chasing old bottles (talking 50s-70s here) appears to be largely a dead-end street, and I have excellent sources. One issue is surely that many of these wines were not valued by collectors, and were sufficiently drinkable early on, as well as a couple of decades after, that even locals did not stockpile them. I can source a large handful of bottles from the better producers, but some of it at prices that give me pause as to provenance and/or dead or nearly dead wine, and others at prices where I can find interesting traditional Barolo or Barbaresco from the legendary vintages for the same money, which makes it no contest. I am going to follow your advice and buy some of the better recent vintages, and then look for the occasional older bottle when I am dining out. I have a friend whose father was Ivrea nobility, and has left behind a cellar certain to include a stash of Carema and other old Piemontese wines that I have been invited to plunder. Condition may be an issue, but the exploration fun…
Bill,
I would say at current prices you’ll be very proud of yourself in 5 years. There’s a new Lessona producer called La Prevostura that is excellent (their first vintage was too ripe, but after that they’re excellent, I think '09 was the first), Sella is an obvious choice, Ghemme from Cantalupo possibly excepting the Cluny…
I had the Sperino Lessona 2007 a few days ago and found it excellent. Very enjoyable now, but I am very curious to see how it will evolve in the coming years.
Oliver, thanks for the “La Prevostura” recommendation.
The freshness should hang around, but the tannins should resolve themselves a bit.
You’re welcome.
The freshness is great and works very nicely in combination with the savoury, saline character.
I didn’t find the tannins unpleasant at all. Very fine grained and well integrated.
I am curious to see how the flavours, which are currently quite exuberant, will evolve in time.
I imagine I might like it even better as these will get toned down a bit and become more subtle.
I didn’t mean to make it sound like the tannins were offensive, it’s just something to note that they will blend in well and maintain freshness (along with the other nuances you picked up)
The tannins in the Lessonas I’ve tasted are beautiful, very elegant, but the wines certainly age. The appellation used to be a monopole DOC for Sella, who’ve been bottling wine from the appellation for centuries. I’ve had very good examples from the '70s, even a '21 (which looked and tasted like a very good Amontillado, interestingly).
1,281 days since last post. Bump!
I had a 1997 Dessilani ‘Riserva’ [Spanna] the last few nights. It’s 12.5% abv according to the label and, despite being stood up for a few days, has a murky brown cloudy look. But despite the visuals, it has a fine bouquet and a long sweet, rounded palate. It’s shows some varietal rose petals and spice box smells, and the wine is lovely on the palate. There is still a tiny bit of tannin left, but let’s say something like (unscientifically) 95% resolved or something. I don’t know if its really a reserve level offering or that’s just a name, but this was a B+ or A- level wine for my not too discerning tastes in nebbiolo. Mainly I just like them with some bottle age, and after the tannin smoothes out. Lovely balance between fruit, tannin and acid. It seems like the producer is regarded as traditional, and makes their wine to age. Way too classy for home made grilled pizzas!
A producer that I like is Torraccia del Piantavigna. They seem to have quite a few bottlings. I have found the base Gattinara and Ghemme to be their best bottlings.
I am also a fan of the Travaglini Gattinara. I also prefer the normale to the more up market wines. The Nervi normale is also very good.
Also Le Piane Maggorina is a very nice entry level wine and is great with food.
I am very interested in the wines of the Alto Piemonte and search them out. I have had a few bottles of Roero as well. Malvira’ Roero Superiore Mombeltramo and Matteo Correggia.
Vallana Spanna has been an iconic wine for well over half a century. Gaja, who makes great wines, is often credited with bringing a new level of quality to Piedmont, but Vallana was making very great wine when Angelo Gaja was a teenager.
Obviously not legally part of Piedmont, but Aosta also has some superb Nebbiolo. Others will know more, but I believe the only DO is Donnaz (mostly Nebbiolo).
Dan Kravitz