Rovellotti, 'Valplazza', Nebbiolo

Like most Sommeliers, I am a lover of Barolo, Barbaresco, and all things Nebbiolo. I taste a lot of it—too much, probably—and I love most of it, even when it’s stubborn or still waking up from its slumber. But every so often, a bottle doesn’t just check the boxes… it blows past them and reminds you why this grape inspires lifelong obsession. I first visited Rovellotti’s home base—a centuries-old castle in the walled village of Ghemme—a few years ago with my wife and our newborn daughter, and the place felt like a scene straight out of The Princess Bride: stone corridors, ivy-covered ramparts, and barrel rooms that look like they’ve been aging Nebbiolo since medieval times. That memory hit me all over again when I pulled the cork on the 2022 Valplazza. I expected a charming little Alto Piemonte red; instead, it came roaring out of the glass with alpine strawberries, dried roses, crushed rock, and that cool-toned, iron-spined structure with perfectly composed fruit that makes you sit up straighter at the table and mentally warn your liver a few more glasses are incoming. It’s the kind of wine that makes you stop mid-conversation, swirl again, and think: Wait—how is this $34? How is this not already sold out when there’s so little made? This is Nebbiolo with nerve and nobility, firing way above its price class and flat-out embarrassing half the bottles sitting next to it.

Rovellotti is based in the medieval walled town of Ghemme, one of the historic cradles of Nebbiolo, but the wine we’re offering today is bottled under the broader Colline Novaresi appellation. Think of it like Bourgogne Rouge in Burgundy: the same noble grape, grown in the same hills, crafted by the same hands—just freed from the stricter village-level rules and pricing. Alto Piemonte is a patchwork of volcanic and glacial soils at the base of the Alps, home to some of the most seriously compelling Nebbiolo zones in Italy. Names like Gattinara, Lessona, Boca, and Bramaterra are gaining a cult following for exactly this reason: wines with lift, mineral tension, and aromatic complexity that drink like Barolo wearing a Burgundy jacket—structure and grip on one side, perfume and finesse on the other. The Rovellotti family has been rooted here since the 15th century, making wine inside their fortified castle long before the Langhe became the center of the Nebbiolo universe. Brothers Paolo and Antonello farm organically, prune low, and harvest by hand—producing wines that speak of altitude, stone, and cool alpine air.

The 2022 Valplazza comes from the Valplazza vineyard in the Barragiola sub-zone just south of Ghemme, where Nebbiolo (locally called Spanna) grows on ancient glacial moraine—fractured stone, sand, and mineral-rich silt that give the wine its nervy frame and bright red-fruit profile. The grapes are hand-picked, fully destemmed, and fermented spontaneously with native yeasts in stainless-steel tanks to preserve purity and lift. Rovellotti vinifies and ages its wines in a network of tiny underground cellars beneath Ghemme’s 10th-century Ricetto fortress, lined with decades-old botti—a reminder that even when the method is modern, the soul is historic.

In the glass, the wine shows a pale garnet core with pink-and-orange-tinged edges—classic Nebbiolo transparency, but a shade deeper in youth due to minimal oxygen exposure. The aromatics are alive and layered: alpine strawberry, rose petal, red currant, goji berry, iron, crushed rock, and a whisper of fresh mountain herb. The palate is medium-plus bodied and beautifully balanced—bright fruit, fine tannins, and a salty mineral snap on the finish. Decant 30–45 minutes to let the aromatics unwind, and serve in a Burgundy stem at about 60°F, slightly cool. It will age gracefully for the next 3–5 years, but honestly, the best window may be now through the end of 2026, when its freshness, fruit, and tension are at full volume. On a winter night, get a few bottles of this, invite some friends over, and prepare Stracotto di Fassona Piemontese (Piedmontese braised beef). It will be a night of pure pleasure.