RED:

Spanna Colline Montalbano
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Fifteen years ago, Robert Parker called Vallana's wines "intense, traditionally made wines that ooze with character." Winewriter Burton Anderson said: "Vallana creates Spannas with extraordinary life spans, their breeding, substance and longevity showing no compromise whatever with conceptions of mass consumerism." For $300 (in California) you can still buy the 1954 Spanna - an extraordinary wine that's better than all but a handful of great Barolos of similar age. As Vallana's back label proudly proclaims, both of the wines we offer "are capable of aging for 30 years or more." You don't have to age them that long, though. These are both showing absolutely brilliantly even now. (Our clients were astonished at how good they were, despite very high expectations.)

We're especially lucky with Vallana's current vintages. Their Spanna (pure nebbiolo, from two great, steep vineyards in the town of Boca) is from the 2000 vintage (yes, the Wine Spectator's 100-point Piedmont year), and the super-ripeness of this year melds perfectly with this more northerly expression of nebbiolo. The single-vineyard Boca (mainly nebbiolo, with a bit of Bonarda and Nespolina for strength) is from 1996, the most classic Piedmont vintage of our generation, and one perfectly suited to its extended maturation in large chestnut and oak "botti". This wine was, in fact, just recently bottled, after almost all of the "traditional" 1996 Barolos.

These are both brilliant and, for us at least, "important" wines. They're wines of both boundless character and very wide appeal.

2000 Vallana Spanna "Colline Novaresi"
Vallana has vineyards in the prestigious appellation of Gattinara, but it's their extraordinarily steep vineyards (Casa Rosa and Montalbano) in the DOC hamlet of Boca which truly excel. This 2000 Spanna is a brilliant nebbiolo, with a perfume, color and style that reminds me of a top Giacosa Barolo. (Really.) But even Giacosa's basic nebbiolo retails for over $30 now. This wine is actually even more traditional. It was bottled after three years in old oak and chestnut barrels. The aromas really leap from the glass here, and both the purity and the chewy yet somehow vivid and even ethereal richness are startling. This is nebbiolo at its finest and most ineffable. It's hard to believe this is so affordable! As good as most 2000 Barolos now, and will only get better. And better.

 

Boca Casa Rosa
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"Earthy, evolved nose. Sweet, mature fruit dried cherries, with still−tight acidity and firm tannins.Long. Up to 3 years." (Decanter Magazine − Feb−2006)