Dirupi, "Vino Sbagliato" Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG (2018) – Lombardia

Sforzato is Valtellina's answer to Amarone: Nebbiolo grapes dried before they're pressed. Dirupi's version comes from their highest, latest-ripening plots, and gives it the name with a wink. It's big, but it's not heavy.

THE GRAPE
100% Chiavennasca from parcels at 500–600 metres, where the grapes ripen late and grow thick skins. That's what makes them ideal for drying.

THE WINE
The grapes are air-dried for two to three months, losing around 30% of their moisture, then macerated for about 20 days and aged in French oak. The nose is intense and layered: dried wild berries, rose and violet, mint, orange peel, clove, black tea and a whiff of smoke. The palate is powerful, with youthful tannins, real depth and an aromatic density that lasts. It's a wine for a cold night and a long conversation.

FOOD PAIRING
Braised beef, aged cheeses, game, or a slice of pizza. Yes, really.

THE WINEMAKER 
Davide Fasolini (Aka Faso) and Pierpaolo Di Franco (Aka Birba) played basketball together as kids, studied oenology in Milan, and founded Dirupi in 2004 with a first vintage of 1,600 bottles. They make wine in a 16th-century palazzo in Ponte in Valtellina, from around 7 hectares split into small plots across more than 20 subzones. The vines sit on dry-stone terraces between 400 and 600 metres, some at gradients up to 70%, worked entirely by hand and organically. Everything is done by hand and organically. Every parcel is vinified on its own, with long macerations, then the two of them decide what each one wants to be.