At the end of last month I had the pleasure to meet and taste with Sara Maule, brand ambassador of Nino Negri (the largest producer in Valtellina) and daughter of Casimiro Maule, its winemaker. This turned out to be quite an eye-opening experience for me, as (unfortunately) the wines of of the area are probably often something happened upon by accident rather than willful intent. They ought not to be.

Of the array that she had, it was the sfursat wines that shone most magnificently for me. The style is also written as “sforzato di Valtellina”, translated roughly (contextually) as “the forced wines of Valtellina”. This refers to the means by which these wines toe the tightrope between Barolo and Amarone: sforzato is a passito process where wine is made from dried grapes, the way Amarone is. However, instead of the Valpolicella grapes, sforzato di Valtellina uses chiavennasca, the synonym for nebbiolo in Valtellina.

The traditional Sfursat of Nino Negri (pictured) was perhaps my favorite, lending classic, old-world complexity with mind-boggling richness, intensity, structure, and elegance. They also produce a ‘5 Stelle’, their flagship, which sees 20 months of new French barrique, lending lots of fantastic sculpture.

So, the next time you’re in the mood for a heady, complex Italian red and are toying with Piedmont and/or Veneto, maybe you should take an adventure over to the north of Lombardy and find out what these hidden gems are all about.