I’m looking for passito wines other than Nino Negri Sfursat. I realize this is reaching far beyond the ordinary nebbiolo world and options imported into the US are likely to be limited. Any suggestions?
Paging Roberto…clean up on aisle three…
Can’t think of any late harvest nebbiolo from the Langhe. The sweet wines there are Moscato (low alcohol) or Barolo Chinato (fortified with herbs) or Vermouth (ditto).
Get thee to Valtellina.
http://www.vinifay.it/eng/wines.html
They have recently left Neal Rosenthall, I don’t know the new importer
Ah ha! Very interesting. What are your personal impressions? Ar.Pe.Pe has been on my list of producers to try, but my mind wanders.
Good and not so good, but interesting results with tasting the Ar. Pe.Pe wines. Really liked the 2010 Rosso. They have some good wines, but it is kind of like Burgundy. Somewhat irregular and you have to taste the wine. I have liked and sold some of the other producers too. But again, it can almost be on a bottle by bottle basis.
Hi, Kevin.
ARPEPE only make one wine that includes some appassimento, it’s called Ultimi Raggi. Although historically this is far from being their most important wine, it is always excellent (they have only been making it for 15 or so years, I believe - Arturo Pelizzati Perego, the great late patriarch of ARPEPE, was not particularly fond of the appassimento method). I rate ARPEPE among Italy’s very best wine producers.
TRIACCA, in addition to making a very good Sforzato (San Domenico), makes a wine wine called Prestigio, which includes a proportion of dried grapes. It is often a fabulous wine that ages well (I’m drinking my '99s and, while they are drinking great, they are definitely still a bit more on the young side).
FAY’s Ronco del Picchio is a very good wine that I am not particularly fond of: Fay underwent a stylistic change some ten years ago and the wines are now a bit too slick and “streamlined” for me (sadly, that applies to their other wines as well).
See if you can find some older vintages of the SERTOLI SALIS Sforzato “Canua”. They had a really rough transition when Claudio Introini left. I think the 2001 Canua is one of the last, if not THE last, Sfursat that he made for Sertoli Salis and it is worth a special search.
Very helpful – thank you!
Travaglini do ‘Il Sogno’ (The dream), though it is very small volume, and they had none left when we visited the winery a couple of years ago. Picked up a bottle in La Morra, but not opened it yet, and in truth I’m not entirely sure I will like it. Still, I wanted to answer that question, hence the purchase.
Regards
Ian
The 02 Canua is a damned good wine, regardless of who made it…
I’ve also enjoyed Ronco del Picchio, if I have the name right, although perhaps a bit to the modern side. But have not seen their wines around for some time
Conti Sertoli Salis Sforzato di Valtellina Canua. The '01 was hauntingly good
Like folks say…the Sfursats from the Valtelline are pretty much it. I’ve liked almost all the ArPePe (ArturePelizatti-Perego) wines across
the board, though a bit pricey.
If you’ve not tried a BaroloChinato, you should. Interesting & exotic stuff…especially if you like Buckley’sCoughSyrup (thanks…Mom, for that experience!!)
Tom
I agree completely, as usual. ArPePe is outstanding, unfortunately not readily available in CA. Fay seems to have good raw material but too much use of small wood for my taste.
Alessandro e Gian Natale Fantino in Monteforte d’Alba make/made a Nebbiolo passito in a moderately sweet style that went under the name “Nepas” in it’s later years. You may be able to find some at retail. Wine Searcher shows the 1999 available in a few stores. I vaguely remember that Guiseppe Quintarelli occasionally produced something similar. The Sforsatos/Sfurzats of Valtellina, as mentioned by the others, are in a drier style in my experience.
And then there is the old school of Balgera for Sfursat. I really like Triacca, especially when price factors in, but I don’t know what is available these days.
Fay
Balgera
Triacca
Ar.Pe.Pe
Pietro Nera
Plozza
Mamete Prevostini
Aldo Rainoldi
Sertoli Salis went off the rails after the death of our dear friend Cesare…
I’m probably the last person you’ll hear complaining about a wine being underpriced 
, but in ARPEPE’s case I think “pricey” really is relative. I understand these are wines that are not for everyone, to begin with. But their staying power is really impressive: I’ve had vintages back to 1964 drinking fabulously well at 40 and more years of age. Even their mid-range wines can be relied upon to age and evolve effortlessly and meaningfully for a very long time. Furthermore, this really is, as Italians say, “viticultura estrema/eroica”, winemaking on the edge. From that perspective, while their top wines are not exactly cheap, in my world ARPEPE is great QPR.
I’ve never had the '02, regrettably, but it might still have been made by Introini. I seem to remember he left Sertoli Salis in 2005 or 2006 (?). Roberto probably knows more about this.
A crying shame, really. Used to be such a top-class outfit.
He was FIRED by the nieces of Cesare shortly after Cesare died in early 2005. Last we saw him he was working with some small Piemonte estate but then he disappeared.