Since this publication’s inception in 2014, I have been high on the wines of Valtellina. This alpine valley northeast of Lake Como produces Nebbiolo1 wines of extraordinary finesse and beauty. I’ve repeated the lines about its “heroic” labor hours, its 2,000-plus miles of terraced walls, and the weird composition of its soils so often, that I suppose could be an official spokesperson for the region. At book signings and tastings to promote Opening a Bottle: Italy, I usually have a bookmark on the photo of ARPEPE’s staggering wall of vines, because it is easily the most impressive landscape on any page, and it helps sell what I am doing: “This book is not about ordinary winemaking. Just look at this.”
The wines of Valtellina have a unified personality. They are the actor who shows restraint on screen, the landscaper who lets a bit of the wild into their design.
But while tasting the wines of Tenuta Scerscé this year, reviewed below, I realized something that feels just as important. From Tenuta Scerscé to Sandro Fay to Dirupi to Ca’Bianche to Barbacàn and of course, the great ARPEPE, the wines of Valtellina have a unified personality. They are the actor who shows restraint on screen, the landscaper who lets a bit of the wild into their design. The elegance of these wines reveals that Valtellina’s producers never aspired to be illustrious; they have merely embraced what nature has given them, and what it authentically says about their valley.
I think this sentiment is perhaps best demonstrated by Tenuta Scerscé, because its founder, Cristina Scarpellini, inherently had to have ambition just to do what she did, yet the wines still match that “unified personality” of place.
Scarpellini studied law at the University of Paris Sorbonne, forged a legal career in Milan and specialized in “enterprise internationalization,” as her website states, before starting her winery high up in Alps. Most of the time, after a sentence like that, you know what to expect in the glass. But Scarpellini’s career pivot was not about seizing opportunity or capitalizing on a trend: the walls of Valtellina would never allow that, because viticulture there is too goddamn hard. On the mountain, everything has to be done by hand. After a tortuous harvest and into the cellar, Nebbiolo requires even more needles to thread. And on the marketplace, “Valtellina” has to be explained again and again.
This valley demands passion and respect, otherwise it will chew up your business and spit it back out. Scarpellini possess both chatterer traits in spades. “I changed my life because of Valtellina,” she told me in 2020. “I had to sink my roots in deeply. The deeper you go, the more stable you become.”
Most vintages, I get a chance to taste her extraordinary wines thanks to her American importer, who has long provided samples upon my request for this site (see below). New vintages are coming out and I’ve fallen a bit behind in reviewing them because of my book publicity, but this set Tenuta Scerscé reveals a winery that has long since found its form, and is now staking its claim as one of the best in all of Lombardy.
1Valtellina’s primary grape is Chiavennasca, which is a variant of Nebbiolo. For ease of reader comparison, I am referring to the grape here by its more familiar name.
2023 Tenuta Scerscé “Nettare” Rosso di Valtellina
Rosso di Valtellina DOC (Lombardy )
Grapes: Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo) (100%)
Alcohol: 12.5%
Food-friendliness: Impeccable
Value: As Expected
Scarpellini’s simplest and most malleable Nebbiolo wine gives Pinot Noir lovers something to rejoice about. Sleek, fruity, lean and lightweight, yet only costing in the mid-$30s (USD), it outclasses a lot of similarly priced wines from the much-vaunted grape. However, this wine feels like it should be consumed young.
2019 Tenuta Scerscé “Incanto” Valtellina Superiore Sassella
Valtellina Superiore DOCG (Lombardy )
Grapes: Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo) (100%)
Alcohol: 13%
Food-friendliness: Versatile
Value: As Expected
From the 2021 vintage on, this wine will be known as “Petrato.” Sassella is the most famous and celebrated subzone of Valtellina, a collection of tumbling slopes that face into the breva wind that races up the valley from Lake Como.
This is my favorite wine from the estate, demonstrating the quiet poise of the region with stately elegance and thrilling complexity (my notes: cranberries, raspberries, porcini, leather, smoke, petrichor). The tannins are already fine-grained, and while the temptation is to compare all of these wines to Barolo and Barbaresco, the mood match here is more like a Morgon night (if you are a fanatic for Cru Beaujolais). This wine is worth collecting.
2019 Tenuta Scerscé “Cristina Scarpellini” Valtellina Superiore Valgella Riserva
Valtellina Superiore DOCG (Lombardy )
Grapes: Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo) (100%)
Alcohol: 13%
Food-friendliness: Versatile
Value: As Expected
Scarpellini’s story may be one of ambition and vision, as the vanity name of this Riserva would certainly suggest, but this wine’s demeanor is anything but. There is a certain kind of understated poetry to its cherry-driven, mineral form: an example of one foot in the Alps, one foot in the Côte d’Or. As happened with the “Nettare,” this wine had me thinking about the many Pinot Noir lovers I know and how much I’d love to share with them this spectrum of flavors and textures. But unlike “Nettare,” this wine has a considerable journey still ahead of it, which is felt in the momentous acidity that builds and builds with each sip. Leaner and more light than the “Incanto,” it will age just as well.
2018 Tenuta Scerscé “Infinito” Sforzato di Valtellina
Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG (Lombardy )
Grapes: Chiavennasca (Nebbiolo) (100%)
Alcohol: 15%
Food-friendliness: Limited
Value: As Expected
Sforzato di Valtellina is the region’s traditionally made outlier. The same process that puts the power into Amarone della Valpolicella — known as appassimento, the air-drying of grapes — gives sforzato the same. In fact, the derivation of the name means power, and while “Infinito” might have you thinking of the wine’s finish, to me, it is actually an apt descriptor for the aromas. A complex milieu of fresh and dried fruit, earth and spice and flowers and stone, I must admit that smelling this wine was more than half its pleasure. The concentration of elements on the palate can be overwhelming in wines made from air-dried grapes. It is why I hardly ever write about Amarone, if I am being honest. That’s not a critique of the winemaking, rather a hallmark of this style. Either you like that kind of intensity or you don’t. While I prefer the Valtellina Superiore style over Sforzato in almost all cases, what’s amazing here is that the alcohol level is hardly any different than many Barolo of today: 15%. “Infinito” is one of the very best from this small DOCG. The components are so well orchestrated, so deep and balanced, you could reach for it any night that you’d normally pull out Barolo.
Note: These wines were provided as samples by their importer, Dalla Terra Winery Direct. Learn more about my editorial policy.
