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Today’s superior selection from Lombardy’s Dirupi is an exlusive and unique wine that showcases one of Italy’s best loved grape. Our allocation is extremely limited, so be sure to place your order early.

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Mission Codename: 2000 Years in the Making

Operative: Agent White & Agent Fog

Objective: Secure a wine from the historic and mountainous Valtellina region

Mission Status: Accomplished!

Current Winery: Dirupi

Wine Subject: 2008 Valtellina Superiore DOCG Nebbiolo

Winemaker:

Backgrounder:

The Valtellina mountains in Italy’s Lombardy region, has a wine-making history that dates back over 2000 years, with many of the region’s vineyards being designated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. Located in the Italian Alps near the Swiss border and along the river Adda. Most unique are the south-facing hillside terrace vineyards that are planted on the step mountain sides up to about 2500 feet above sea level making mechanized harvesting totally impossible. In Leonardi Da Vinci’s Codex Atlanticus, he describes the Valtellina as “a valley surrounded by tall and fearsome mountains” and the wines as “heady and strong”.

Today’s selection is is a 100% Nebbiolo and the Valtellina Superiore DOCG is considered one of the most prestigious wines of all of Italy.

Wine Spies Tasting Profile:

Look – Deep ruby red with a clear bright core that shows ruby streaks when held to the light. When swirled, this springy wine has fast and tightly spaced legs that race down the side of the glass.

Smell – Pretty and aromatic with ripe and tart red fruit including red cherry, raspberry and hints of strawberry notes are layered over subtle perfumed rose petal and sandalwood. A touch of green herb, toasted oak and spice along with hints of truffle also appear.

Feel – Despite its relative youth, this full-bodied and dry wine is extremely smooth with well developed finely textured tannins; almost feminine in character. Add some lively but balanced acidity and a touch of minerality and the resulting structure lingers long into the finish.

Taste – Ripe and tart red fruit including red Italian cherry, wild raspberry and hints of strawberry blend with floral, oak and green herb notes. A touch of earthy truffle and violets adds complexity.

Finish – Long and ultra clean, this wine’s red fruit gently fades leaving behind a fresh feeling in the mouth. As the fruit lingers the finely textured tannins and acidity remain making the mouth water for another sip.

Conclusion – The 2008 Dirupi Valtellina Superiore DOCG Nebbiolo is a fantastic wine showing Nebbiolo in all its glory but not overpowering. Surprisingly smooth and plush with great red fruit that starts on the nose and lingers long into the finish. Extremely elegant with subtle complexity from start to finish. Enjoy this wine tonight or cellar for up to ten years or more and pair with a simple tagliatelle pasta with olive oil and shaved truffles (O.K., we know its not that simple, but it is certainly divine).

Mission Report:

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WINEMAKER INTEL BRIEFING DOSSIER

SUBJECT: Davide Fasolini

WINE EDUCATION: Vineyard manager and agricultural supervisor. Assistant winemaker and cellar manager. Communications manager, marketing manager, salesman and delivery boy !

WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY: Wine is made in the vineyard, but it must be vinified cleanly.

WINEMAKER QUOTE: I sweat but I enjoy. (working vineyards in Valtellina is real tough, but the result is always outstanding)

FIRST COMMERCIAL WINE RELEASE: December 1st 2006

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WINEMAKER INTERVIEW

AGENT WHITE: Greetings, Davide. We are thrilled to be showing your [wine] today. Thanks so much for taking some time to answer questions for our Operatives today.

DAVIDE: Thank you for the great opportunity. it’s always wonderful to be able to talk about one’s projects and dreams.

WHITE: Was there a specific experience in your life that inspired your love of wine?

DAVIDE: Of course. In Valtellina almost everyone tried to work a harvest with a friend or a relative that ah a small vineyard. It’s a moment of great feast, a memory that stays with you forever. When every morning, whilst going to school, you pass under the terraces of these mountain vineyards…slowly, slowly…something lights up in your mind. It’s like inception.

WHITE: What wine or winemaker has most influenced your winemaking style?

DAVIDE: Many meetings, of humble and modest people that have dirt under their finger nails.

WHITE: Who do you make wine for?

DAVIDE: In reality, we make grapes. Wine is then created, with a lot of attention and cleanliness, by itself. We make it how we like it and for those who can enjoy it as much as we do.

WHITE: Please tell me a little bit about the wine we are featuring today.

DAVIDE: It was our first label, the only one on the first year of production. 1161 bottles, a number I will never forget. This was the 4th harvest that we did and every year we make a small step forwards…an improvement, a little more elegance, naturality and typicality. Effectively, the thing that we care about the most is that our wine speaks of our land, so peculiar, so difficult…but unique.

WHITE: What is your favorite pairing with today’s wine?

DAVIDE: Firm flavors. Precise and without complication. The “violino di capra della Ma! Gastronomica di Madesimo”, a special cured meat.

WHITE: In your opinion, what makes the Valtellina so special?

DAVIDE: Well, all you need to do is visit Valtellina and look around you. Dry wall terraces built 1000 to 1200 years before Christ that hold vineyards facing the enviable rays of the sun, with sandy soils up to 70% and the majestic Alps that surround everything, with peaks up to 13,000 feet, snowy for 365 days a year. A clean sky and so much respect from the viticulturists that can only work with their bare hands, without machines and speak to us with their land. There’s really no other place like it.

WHITE: What is occupying your time at the winery these days?

DAVIDE: We’re in the best moment, the pruning. This means that it all starts again, with a new adventure, a new vintage that must be set right since the beginning, but that we have no idea what surprises will come our way throughout the year. It’s that time of year when we make order, we make projects for the vintage to come.

WHITE: How would you recommend people approach your wines and wine in general?

DAVIDE: The essence is trying to capture the elegance and the fine complexity, daughters of a unique terroir and vines over 60 years old that with generosity have been handed down to us by patient and wise viticulturists of the area. Delete all defaults…let yourself be positively impressed by the weak colors and mature, dense tannins. The scents of flowers, ethereal spices that win exactly because they are so complex and fine, to be found only in the delicacy of Valtellina. These are not magazine wines. They are not meant to impress at trade tastings. Elegance, femininity, delicacy and subtleness is the character of this land and why it is what it is. Any comparison to Southern Piemonte Nebbiolo or Napa Valley is just plain stupid.

WHITE: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?

DAVIDE: Give the wine a chance to speak to you and look inside that glass for what is outside. Get to know the producers, their faces and their smiles. They will be able to reveal if a wine is made with passion, hard work, seriousness and naturalism…the real one !

WHITE: Thank you so much for your time. We learned a lot about you – and your wine. Keep up the great work, we are big fans!

Wine Spies Vineyard Check:

The location of the the Valtellina mountains in Northern Italy can be seen in this satellite photo.