IL SALONCELLO | TERRAZZE RETICHE DI SONDRIO IGT

This wine is suited to many dishes which vary according to its age. It is particularly appropriate for first courses with complex, spicy and strong but sweet flavors, and both white meat and poultry.

All the grapes come from vineyards recognized as D.O.C. (Valtellina and Valtellina Superiore) and 10% of Merlot grapes. At the moment, it is necessary to present this wine as “geographically indicated table wine” only because of the method of production and the shorter ageing process.

Obtained after a careful and accurate selection of Nebbiolo grapes (Chiavennasca variety) picked from vineyards in Villa di Tirano e Montagna in Valtellina and Merlot grapes cultivated in Tirano. The grapes must be perfectly healthy for the particular type of vinification foreseen for this wine.

According to an ancient Valtellina tradition (which is confirmed by G.F. Massara in a text dating 1834) the perfectly healthy whole grapes are placed in vats with a little fermenting must. Only after several days (6-10) they are delicately squeezed in a grape press with the same pressure as when they were pressed by hand or by foot. The temperatures of the fermentation of the whole grapes and of the subsequent turbulent fermentation are constantly checked and regulated for the cooling and heating of the must. After this real turbulent fermentation begins, and the marks are repeatedly immersed.

When fermentation is completed, a final hot maceration and then the drawing off follows. The new wine is first conserved in stainless steel vats, where the malolactic fermentation is completed. Repeated decanting follows, strictly in the period when the moon is waning.

In the last quarter of the moon in the month of March, part of the wine is transferred to 50 HL oak casks, and another part to small oak casks, “Barriques”, of 550 litres where it is refined until the following August/September. In this period it is bottled and it begins its development in the bottle where it will improve for many years