Rovellotti, 'Chioso dei Pomi'

Like most sommeliers, I have a deep and enduring love affair with Nebbiolo. Barolo. Barbaresco. Roero. If it's made from Nebbiolo, chances are I want to drink it. Yet every once in a while, a bottle reminds me that some of the most compelling expressions of this grape come not from the famous hills of Barolo and Barbaresco, but from the cooler, higher-elevation vineyards of northern Piedmont at the foot of the Alps.

A few years ago, I visited Rovellotti with my wife and our newborn daughter. We parked outside the ancient walled village of Ghemme and walked through narrow stone streets toward the family's centuries-old castle. The air was cool, the Alps stood quietly in the distance, and it felt as though time had simply stopped. You could almost imagine knights returning through the gates after a hunt or farmers hauling barrels into the fortress cellars centuries ago. It remains one of the most magical wine visits I've ever experienced.

That memory came flooding back the moment I opened today's wine.

The 2018 Chioso dei Pomi is everything I love about the mature Alto Piemonte Nebbiolo. It carries the perfume, delicacy, and haunting complexity that often reminds me more of fine red Burgundy than Barolo. The tannins are finer. The fruit is more lifted. The mountain influence brings an energy and freshness that makes every sip feel effortless. It is one of those wines that causes the table to go quiet for a moment while everyone processes what is happening in their glass.

Rovellotti has been farming and making wine in Ghemme since the 15th century. Long before Barolo and Barbaresco became household names among wine lovers, these northern Alpine hills were producing some of Italy's most celebrated Nebbiolos. The family remains based inside Ghemme's ancient Ricetto, a fortified medieval village whose stone walls have watched over these vineyards for centuries. Walking through its gates today feels remarkably similar to what it must have felt like hundreds of years ago.

The Chioso dei Pomi vineyard is one of Rovellotti's most prized sites within the Ghemme DOCG. Here, Nebbiolo, known locally as Spanna, grows on a fascinating combination of ancient glacial deposits, mineral-rich clay, and sandy soils left behind as Alpine glaciers retreated thousands of years ago. These cooler conditions produce a distinctly different expression of Nebbiolo than the Langhe. The wines tend to be more aromatic, more transparent, and more driven by mineral tension than sheer power. After fermentation, the wine spends extended aging in large traditional oak botti, allowing the vineyard and vintage to remain front and center.

What has always fascinated me about Alto Piemonte is how differently Nebbiolo behaves here. The wines often possess a haunting aromatic quality and sense of finesse that can remind me of great red Burgundy. Not because they taste the same, but because they share a similar transparency. They don't overwhelm you. They invite you in. They reveal themselves slowly over the course of an evening.

Now with several years of bottle age, the 2018 is entering a magnificent drinking window. The color has softened into a luminous garnet with delicate brick reflections at the rim. Aromatically, it is captivating: dried rose petals, wild strawberry, blood orange, black tea, crushed stone, forest floor, tobacco leaf, and hints of truffle. The palate is graceful and beautifully composed, balancing Nebbiolo's classic structure with a level of finesse and transparency that Burgundy lovers immediately recognize. There is tremendous complexity here, but nothing feels heavy. The wine simply glides across the palate.

Decant for 30–45 minutes and serve in a large Burgundy stem at about 60°F. While it has the structure to continue evolving for another decade, it is drinking beautifully today. Pair it with mushroom risotto, braised veal, porcini pasta, roasted duck, or a simple roast chicken with herbs and root vegetables.

Like so many of Italy's greatest wines, this is not a bottle meant to be analyzed in isolation. It truly comes alive at the table. Give it a great meal, a few friends, and an unhurried evening, and you'll understand why generations of families in northern Piedmont have treasured wines like this for centuries.

What I love most about wines like this is their ability to transport you. One glass and you're no longer sitting at your kitchen table. You're walking through a medieval village beneath snow-capped peaks. You're looking up at castle walls that have stood for centuries. You're reminded that some of Italy's greatest wines are still being made quietly, far from the spotlight, by families who have spent generations perfecting their craft.

The 2018 Chioso dei Pomi is exactly that kind of bottle. Mature, soulful, deeply expressive, and one of the finest values in traditionally made Nebbiolo available anywhere in Italy today. If you love the perfume of Nebbiolo, the elegance of Burgundy, and the romance of old Europe, this is a wine you should experience.