Proprieta Sperino: producer profile and historic wines tasted

Proprieta Sperino in the Lessona DOC, Alto Piemonte, has been managed with great enthusiasm and flair for some years by Paolo de Marchi’s son, Luca.

Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores for 10 Proprieta Sperino’s wines

Paolo de Marchi was best known, of course, as the owner of the renowned Chianti Classico estate Isole e Olena until its very recent sale, but his ancestral property far to the north has nothing in common with the Tuscan winery except, Luca remarks, that each has to work with a difficult grape variety: Sangiovese at Isole e Olena and Nebbiolo at Proprieta Sperino.

In the 19th century, Alto Piemonte was one of Italy’s largest wine regions with 40,000 hectares under vine. But frequent hailstorms and the growing industrialisation of the area – its pure water made it ideal for textile production – led to a dramatic decline and within a few years, only 300 hectares remained under cultivation.

Lessona

Lessona is one of a number of DOCs within Alto Piemonte, although Gattinara and Ghemme are better known. By 1905, its vineyard surface had dropped from 300 to just two hectares. Facing extinction, it was the determination of its principal owners – the Sperino and Sella families – that helped it to survive. Even today, however, only 30 hectares are in production.

‘We still have bottles in our cellars from 1817,’ declares Luca. Bottling wines didn’t really become common in Italy until the 1960s, as almost everything was drunk locally, but Lessona was an exception. Vineyards were first documented here in the 15th century, and bottling was already routine in the 19th century, testifying to the quality and prestige of the region.

Lessona, the most westerly of the Alto Piemonte appellations, has maritime sandy soils at an elevation of around 300 metres, whereas other DOCs here tend to have more granitic soils. They all share a microclimate very different from that of the Langhe, where Barolo and Barbaresco are located – the vineyards here are sheltered by the Alps to the north, giving mild winters in which snowfall is a rarity. Yields are very low and although the tannins can equal those of Barolo, they are less perceptible because of the gentler structure of the wines.

The de Marchi family acquired the property here from their relatives, the Sperino family and the first vintage of the revived Sperino was 2004. In 2015, Luca introduced a single-vineyard Lessona wine from a cru called Covà. Despite its small one-hectare size, the grapes are selectively harvested with up to five pickings so as to include only the ripest fruit.

Sperino: In the cellar

De Marchi makes the estate’s wines in a very traditional way: complete destemming, fermenting the must in open-top vats with natural yeasts, employing occasional punchdowns for extraction, and ageing the wines for around 42 months in large used barrels.

Although Lessona has a remarkable capacity to age, Sperino’s wines are accessible young too. This is especially true of the basic ‘Uvaggio’ blend, which is composed of 80% Nebbiolo as well as Vespolina and Croatina. In contrast, the Lessona has a higher proportion of Nebbiolo and is given longer ageing.

In 2004, the de Marchis family purchased a plot of vines in the neighbouring DOC of Bramaterra, however it was not until 2018 that they felt happy with the wine and decided to release it. Previous vintages, they believed, were too rustic.

A tiny quantity of Cabernet Franc is also produced at the estate. It’s a variety that has become fashionable in areas such as Bolgheri, but Luca believes it is far better suited to the cooler climate of Alto Piemonte. In contrast to the Lessona DOC wines, it is aged in barriques, of which half are new, for a remarkable five years before bottling.

Luca’s excitement about Lessona is bolstered by the fact that some bottles from the mid-19th century are still drinkable. It suggests that the renown of Alto Piemonte in centuries past was no fluke, but that the region had an amazing potential for quality and longevity – a potential that was largely lost after wine production plummeted.

His view, shared by established producers such as Travaglini and Antoniolo, is somewhat validated by the arrival of prestigious newcomers such as Roberto Conterno of Barolo, who purchased the Nervi estate in Gattinara in 2018.

Stephen Brook tastes Proprieta Sperino’s wines:

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