Valtellina Superiore Sassella Riserva 2017

Rainoldi’s Sassella Riserva is an evolved and structured wine, also suitable for long aging. It is produced with the first choice of grapes from the Sassella area in the townships of Sondrio and Castione Andevenno. Sassella is considered the area of the most elegant wines of Valtellina with a mineral taste. The grapes come from the terraces clinging to the rocky wall of the mountain between 290 and 630 meters above sea level. The soil is poor and the subsoil is granite rock and gneiss with a strong presence of iron. For the Sassella Riserva the best grapes are taken and only in favorable vintages; the yields are low, only 6 tons per hectare. The grape variety is Nebbiolo which in Valtellina is called Chiavennasca. In these mountainous conditions - we are in the Alps on the border with Switzerland - Nebbiolo produces wines that are lighter and more streamlined than those from Piedmont, but with undoubted charm and elegance. Valtellina is a territory of heroic mountain viticulture and is the second growing place of Nebbiolo.

The grapes ferment with maceration on the skins. After racking, the wine undergoes malolactic fermentation and ages in large oak barrels of 25 and 56 hectoliters for two years. This is followed by a rest in steel for two months before bottling and finally the wine ages for another year in the bottle before being sold.