Description
Antonello Rovellotti, Ghemme “Chioso dei Pomi”
Want some sound wine advice? In a market flooded with expensive Barolo and Barbaresco, shrewd minds have increasingly looked to the northern limits of Piedmont, in the isolated yet feverishly buzzed-about terroir of Ghemme. But the smartest buyers have taken one additional step by seeking out the artisanal Nebbiolos of Antonello Rovellotti, a staunchly traditional producer crafting towering monuments of value, quality, and pedigree. The wines are not for those who demand the unbending structure and savagery of young Nebbiolo—here, you’ll only find elegance, haunting aromatics, and breathtaking equilibrium.
The formula is one part terroir, one part heritage. If you ask the family how long they’ve owned this alpine property, they’ll tell you “forever,” and it’s hardly an exaggeration: When I personally visited years ago, I discovered no less than eleven generations can be documented here, however, they conservatively put it around 20. Taste today’s “Chioso dei Pomi” and you’ll understand this is not a wine made overnight but rather a soft, complex, genuinely hand-crafted Nebbiolo that’s centuries in the making. This 2013 is their current release (Barolo producers are beginning to release 2017s), and it’s just entering a decades-long drinking window. That’s just one of the magical powers of Rovellotti’s prestigious Ghemme bottlings. Don’t miss out.
Ghemme belongs to the greater Alto Piemonte, the more northerly part of Italy’s Piedmont region, not far from the Monte Rosa Massif. Clustered around the Sesia River north of the city of Novara, the assorted wine appellations of the Alto Piemonte are prime hunting grounds for extreme Nebbiolo values, and Ghemme has proved especially fertile. But there just isn’t much to be had: The geographic boundaries of the appellation are already quite small, but the number of planted acres here is shockingly low (there’s a reason this wine is so hard to obtain!) Further, like Barolo and Barbaresco, Ghemme is classified as a DOCG—the “G” standing for garantita, or guaranteed—which is the highest “quality indicator” in the Italian appellation system.
Antonello Rovellotti lives in the small village of Ghemme, which is centered around a sprawling castle built in the 1100s; Antonello is the only winemaker still permitted to work in the original structure. His “winery” is little more than a collection of trap doors, lofts, and crawl spaces hidden all over the castle. Despite the minuscule production volume here, it takes numerous key rings and an hour of exploring and climbing ladders to see the entire operation. And while Antonello is a gifted and experienced winemaker, and his vines are among the village’s oldest and most prized, for me the real story with Rovellotti is his vinification.
Antonello is not afraid of making wine the hard (and long) way. He ferments spontaneously, and after three years of maturation in neutral Swiss botti, along with heaps of additional time in bottle without fining, at least six years pass! Most modern wine producers—even in top-dollar regions like Burgundy or Barolo—aren’t willing to defer profits for that long. Essentially, Rovellotti is crafting Piedmontese Nebbiolo much like it was in the 1960s.
Rovellotti’s current release of “Chioso dei Pomi” shines with a vibrant deep ruby core that transitions to a dusty brick orange on the rim. At seven years old, this is just getting started: The primary fruit is still front and center—dried strawberry, black raspberry, currant, red plum—but savory components like dried rose petal, orange peel, leather, dried herbs, crushed earth, stone, tea leaves, aniseed, and incense are threatening to steal the spotlight. That said, this still has a ways to go before reaching its ultimate savory peak. If consuming now, I recommend an hour in a decanter and savoring slowly to best experience the honest expressions of Ghemme’s ancient terroir. Each sip is soft, perfumed, delicately layered, and impressively profound. A note for collectors: Rovellotti always offers an affordable way to improve the breadth and power of your wine library—this 2013 will comfortably exist alongside your off-limits Burgundy, Bordeaux, and Barolos for the next 10-15 years. Cheers!
