Today our Italian Food, Wine and Travel group (#ItalianFWT) rounds out 19th region of Italy with Lombardy. I provided an overview of this Lombardia earlier in the week, but let's dig right in with today's topic, chiavennasca vs. nebbiolo.
When one talks
about the great wines of Italy everyone always talks about nebbiolo,
especially the wines of Barolo and Barbaresco topping the charts.
What about the variations of nebbiolo that are hiding in the shadows
behind those of Piedmont? For example, how familiar are you with
chiavennasca? Would you be surprised if I told you this was also
nebbiolo, but just produced in northern Lombardy, the neighboring
region to Piedmont? To confuse you a little further if we venture to
the region of the Valle d'Aosta, nebbiolo is now called picotendro
and in northern Piedmont in the areas of Ghemme and Gattinara you can
find the wines under the name of spanna. Plus, the biggest benefit,
you can get these wines for a better value and as wine drinkers
we're always looking for good values!
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| Valley of Valtellina by Franco Folini |
Valtellina, tucked
into northern Lombardy near the town of Sondrio and the Adda River,
is the place to seek out chiavennasca. It also is bordering
Switzerland as well so we're definitely talking northern Lombardy
here. Harvesting here is definitely a feat for the winemakers and
those picking grapes as the slopes are very steeply terraced so
everything is hand harvested. It limits production and also
increases the cost of production. I've even been told that some
producers bring in helicopters to help with harvest. It has been
deemed a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well for it's antique
vineyard structures.
The differences between nebbiolo & chiavennasca
The nebbiolo based
wines of the Valtellina don't pack as much a punch of those from it's
neighbor Piedmont due to the cooler temps and high elevations that
restrict the grape from reaching optimum ripeness. The soil here is
also rocky with little clay that also influence the more delicate
character. You will find chiavennasca from Valtellina to be lighter
bodied and in color and not as tannic in comparison to those of
Piedmont, but it's still nebbiolo, a highly tannic grape. But the
wines of Valtellina have an earthy, rustic quality and elegance to
them, which make them very attractive to us nebbiolo lovers.
Sub zones of Valtellina
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| Vineyards of Piedmont |
The wines here are
under the Valtellina Rosso DOC, which produce more of the basic style
wines and then you have the Valtellina Superiore DOCG. Just as
Barolo and Barbaresco have their own comunes in Piedmont that produce
slightly different styles of nebbiolo, so does Lombardy in the
Valtellina area under this Valtellina Superiore DOCG. The 5 areas
within the Valtellina are:
- Grumello – fruit driven wines, smooth, soft and aromatic
- Inferno – The most powerful and auster. This area is the warmest and produces more concentrated wines
- Sassella – complex, elegant and rich styles
- Valgella – delicate and floral. The more simpler style.
- Maroggia – Fruit styles and the more recent addition of the 5.
If one of these
sub-zones are mentioned on the label the grapes come 100% from that
area. If there is no mention it could be a blend of multiple zones.
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| Steep vineyards in the Inferno ~ Valtellina by Craig Drollett |
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