Alto Piemonte & Valtellina, Continued…

BY ANTONIO GALLONI | SEPTEMBER 29, 2020

Keeping up with the fervent pace of change in Alto Piemonte and Valtellina is no easy task these days given the ever-increasing number of estates making fabulous, noteworthy wines. I had originally intended to add the producers in this report to my article Nebbiolo in Its Many Guises: Alto Piemonte & Valtellina, published earlier in the year, but as I tasted through the wines I became convinced these estates, many of them new to Vinous, deserved to be showcased in a separate article.

I was fortunate to be introduced to Alto Piemonte wines as a kid. My father spoke glowingly of Gattinara. He told me it was a noble wine that many years ago was more famous than Barolo and Barbaresco. I was intrigued by his small collection, especially those Travaglini Gattinaras with their odd, square shaped bottles. Years later, in the mid 1990s, I grabbed one of my parents’ bottles for lunch. It was Antoniolo’s 1990 Gattinara Osso San Grato. I was completely blown away. To this day, I remember everything about that wine.