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Boris
Tasting Notes(2)
4.4
Pure magic. Sour cherry, wild strawberry, red flowers, dried fruits lined up in that translucent Valtellina register, with an ascorbic-candy edge that reads almost age-defying for a ten-year-old wine. Delicate but super juicy on the palate, fresh and sexy in the way only Sassella manages to be, and the wine just slides down without you noticing - one of those bottles that empties faster than you'd think. Long, properly fruity finish. Arpepe doing exactly what Arpepe does.
Yo, this wine is simply beautiful. It offers a lovely and perfumed bouquet of wild dark berries, wild strawberry, underbrush, mushrooms, and red flowers. On the palate, it achieves an almost perfect balance - juicy, fresh, and seamlessly integrated. Though still young, it captivates with its charming beauty. It's remarkably nuanced, elegant and sophisticated, making for a truly enchanting experience.
About
Stella Retica is Ar.Pe.Pe.'s 'normale' Sassella, blended across three family parcels in the Sassella subzone: Rocce Rosse (high-iron schist and granite with very little topsoil), Nuova Regina (smaller terraces with less iron), and Ultimi Raggi (the highest at about 600 metres, harvested latest). The wine spends around four months (roughly 120 days) on the skins in open tini, then about 18 months in large, untoasted 50-hectolitre botti of Slavonian, French, or chestnut oak, followed by around two years of bottle age before release. 2015 in Valtellina was a warm vintage on the riper end of the Chiavennasca spectrum, tempered by Sassella's steep, well-aired terraces. The result is the house's signature - pale-rimmed, transparent Nebbiolo with floral lift, alpine herbs, and the granite-borne tension that distinguishes Valtellina from its Piemonte cousins.
