Villa Guelpa. Sizzano

Sizzano DOC
Grape: Nebbiolo, Vespolina

A generous vintage with cocoa and spicy red cherry fruit.  Daniele holds back on the Vespolina, his wines are lush and perfectly balanced, amongst the most approachable, joyous wines of the Alto Piemonte.  13.5%

Villa Guelpa producer page

Sizzano is a tiny, historic, and largely unknown Alto-Piemonte wine.  It is slightly unusual in that Nebbiolo can be no more than 70% of the blend, the balance made up with Uva Rara and/or Vespolina.
The soils in Daniele’s vineyard have up to 3 metres of pebbly, sandy dark loams facing from south to southwest.  The vines are 36-59 years old, Guyot* trained, planted at a density of 3500 plants per hectare. 
Harvested on 9th October, by a small team of family and friends, the bunches were de-stemmed and pressed before a spontaneous fermentation, with skin contact for 2 weeks.  The wine was aged for 24 months in 20hl oak botti after which it was bottled without fining or filtration.

2017 - Immaculate forward, ripe black cherry fruit, marked spice, probably thanks to the Vespolina making itself noticed. Such a luscious wine, this is nuanced and rich, with sweet accessible tannins. It’s a pleasure to drink and promises to mature over a great many years.  13.5%

2016  Wine Enthusiast 93 points