Dirupi, Valtellina Superiore Riserva Grumello "Dossi Salati" DOCG (2018) – Lombardia

The top of the range from the legendary Dossi Salati vineyard: one steep slope, one great vintage, and years of oak.

Dossi Salati is the wine Dirupi keeps for the years. It's grown on one of the highest parcels the estate works, near Sondrio, and it's the most refined and age-worthy wine they make. It's austere first, generous later, and worth every minute of patience.

THE GRAPE
100% Chiavennasca from the Dossi Salati vineyard at 530–570 metres, on stony soils where the day-to-night temperature swing is at its widest. That stress slows ripening and sharpens the aromas.

THE WINE
Red fruit and flowers, sweet spice, mountain herbs and a fresh balsamic edge on the finish. The palate is austere and elegant, with tannins that build slowly and a long savoury close that makes the next glass inevitable. Long ageing in wood softens Nebbiolo's youthful roughness without taking away its backbone. Decant it well ahead, or forget it in the cellar for a few years.

FOOD PAIRING
Braised beef cheek, venison, porcini, a proper cheese course.

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.