From: Alto Piemonte, Italy
Varietal: Nebbiolo
Tasting Notes: Northern Piemonte’s climate and soil differences are on full display in this glorious Colline Novaresi Nebbiolo from 2017. Its proximity to the Alps and Monte Rosa equals cool, alpine air flowing throughout these vineyards. This, plus the longer growing season, has assuredly influenced the resulting wines' layered, ethereal elegance. Its soils, volcanic (igneous porphyry) in origin instead of the chalky clayey soils of Piedmont, add to a distinctly mineral bouquet and undertone, underscored by its gentle tannins. In the glass, unfolding layers of intense red fruits, white pepper, minerals for days, and dried rose petals meet licorice, coffee, spice, and cocoa in a seamless whole. Get it while you can!
Pairing: This is a perfect pairing to wild mushroom risotto, air-dried salami, pork sausages with herbs, peppered steak, pizza (especially funghi pizza), slow-roasted pork or beef (such as ragu), braised duck (check out the recipe below), roasted game hen, braised pork shank, and dishes that incorporate elements like Asian 5-spice, fried polenta, butternut squash, wild mushrooms, garlic and chestnut.
Crisp-Braised Duck Legs with Aromatic Vegetables
By Mark Bittman
About. Monsecco is a historical Piemontese estate. Their wines are powerful yet graceful, and shine a bright light on another corner of the world of Nebbiolo, from a region north of the Langhe.
"For many decades, Lorenzo Zanetta, grandfather to Giorgio, had worked as a negociant in the wine trade, specializing in producing wines from the neighboring zones of "Coste delle Sesia" and "Colline Novaresi" in the area known as the Alto Piemonte. His sons, Sergio (father to Giorgio) and Valter, decided, in 1993, to revive the name and image of Monsecco, dedicating themselves to the task of producing the finest versions of the local wines using only local grape varieties. To that end and over time, they purchased five hectares of vineyards and currently rent an additional three hectares where only Nebbiolo, Vespolina, Uva Rara and Croatina are planted...
There is almost a religious reverence in the Alto Piemonte for Monte Rosa, the mountain that hovers over the region, the grand eminence that protects and nurtures the region. It is visible from all points whether one is in Gattinara or Sizzano or Ghemme, an eternally white-topped mountain whose melting snows form the Sesia river that splits Gattinara from Ghemme. The soils of these hills are marked by the mineral salts and the glacial moraine from millennia of geological movement. Further, sitting in the foothills of this part of the Alps and neighboring the great lakes of Orta and Maggiore, the vines are exposed to large variations in temperature, warm days married to cool nights: an ideal ambience for the noble Nebbiolo and the other local varieties, all of which benefit from the long growing season to reach proper ripeness while maintaining a lively acidity...
Here, Nebbiolo takes center stage, a wine made exclusively from this noble grape and harvested from vineyards outside of the Gattinara and Ghemme delimited zones but still in hillside sites on the slopes above and around the towns on the eastern shore of the Sesia river. Manual harvest occurs normally during the second half of October. The
Zanetta family gives this wine a shorter maceration than it applies to the Gattinara but then the wine is aged in large (15 hectoliter) “botte” for two years before bottling and then left to age an additional year before being released to the market. It is a fine and elegant wine with subtle tannins, bright cherry flavors and a persistent finish that again emphasizes the complex mineral composition of the underlying soils." –ROSENTHAL IMPORTS
