2022 ArPePe "Stella Retica" Valtellina Superiore Sassella (Nebbiolo)

The 2022 Valtellina Superiore Sassella Riserva Stella Retica is an absolute delight. Aromatic and vibrant, with terrific presence, the 2022 is all class. Dark red/purplish fruit, blood orange, pomegranate and orange peel are all sculpted in the glass. This is such an elegant and polished wine. (AG)

Sassella is the finest of the Valtellina subzones — more pebbles and limestone in the granitic sand than Grumello — and Stella Retica is ArPePe’s non-Riserva reading of it, from the terraces where Arturo planted his first Riserva in 1984. The 2022 earned Gambero Rosso’s Tre Bicchieri. In the glass, it pours a light, pretty violet-tinged ruby. The nose is delicate and insistent: raspberry and wild strawberry, dried rose, alpine mint and a stony, flinty minerality. On the palate, it is medium-bodied and round, with silky, ultra-fine tannins, bright acidity and a long, pure finish that tastes of the mountain more than the fruit. Buy it with the Grumello and taste the two subzones side by side. Drink from 2027 for a decade.