WINE > Valfaccenda Roero Rosso, Piedmont Italy 2020 (17/20)

For a long time the Roero was the quiet bank of the Tanaro, the place across the river from Barolo and Barbaresco where Nebbiolo was grown and rarely celebrated. Valfaccenda is one of the estates changing that. Luca Faccenda and Carolina Roggero make wine only from the Roero’s two historic grapes, Arneis and Nebbiolo, on steep, sandy hillsides around Canale. Their Roero Rosso is the estate Nebbiolo, and it shows exactly why the left bank is worth crossing the river for: perfumed, fine-boned and genuinely joyful to drink. 

This is not a single-vineyard wine but a gathering of several. The fruit comes from parcels of different ages in Canale and Santo Stefano Roero, including the Mompellini, Loreto and San Grato sites, facing south-west, east and west on sand with a little clay. Each is fermented on its own, macerated for around two weeks depending on the season, then combined and aged in barrel. The wine is bottled during the waning moon in the autumn after harvest and rests for almost a year before release. The estate calls its approach conservative winemaking, meaning nothing taken away and nothing added.

APPEARANCE >

A bright, translucent ruby with a garnet tinge just starting to show at the rim. It is lighter in colour than a young Langhe Nebbiolo, which is normal for the Roero’s sandy soils and not a sign of a lesser wine. The glass is clear and luminous, and there is no browning at six years from vintage.

NOSE >

This is a wine that leads with its perfume, and the nose is the best part. Red cherry and wild strawberry come first, then rose petal and violet, then a thread of wild herbs, orange peel and fine spice. With air, more savoury notes appear: dried leaves, damp earth, a hint of liquorice and the faintly saline, mineral edge that the old seabed sands of the Roero seem to bring to their Nebbiolo. It is lifted and generous rather than brooding.

LENGTH >

Medium-bodied and light on its feet, with juicy red fruit carried by bright, lively acidity. The tannins are real but fine-grained, closer to silk than to the firm grip of a young Barolo, so the wine drinks well now without losing its Nebbiolo structure. The finish is clean and of good length, drying gently to sour cherry, herbs and a salty, mineral close that brings you back for another glass.

PAIRING >

Its freshness and modest tannin make this an easy match for the Piedmontese table. Try it with tajarin and butter or a light ragù, vitello tonnato, a mushroom risotto or agnolotti del plin. It is equally at home with roast chicken, pork and fennel sausages or a board of aged Toma and salumi. Serve slightly cool at 16–17°C. A short decant of 30 minutes or so helps the perfume open, but this is a bottle to enjoy now and over the next few years rather than one to put away for decades.

VINTAGE >

2020 in the Roero began with a mild, dry winter and a dry, sunny spring that pointed to an early harvest. Then rain from May to late June slowed the vines and replenished the soils. A warm September sped up Nebbiolo’s ripening, and the grapes were picked in very good condition between the end of September and early October, with acidity that held up better than usual for a warm year. The result is a charming, balanced vintage of fragrant, approachable wines, and this Roero Rosso shows that style clearly.

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Image Credit | VALFACCENDA

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