Cascina Val del Prete, Roero Arneis “Luèt”

As I’ve said before, the SommSelect tasting table is a pretty terrifying gauntlet for Italian white wines. On any given day, a wine like today’s Roero Arneis will be evaluated alongside heavy hitters from Burgundy, Austria, Germany, you name it. Historically, such side-by-side comparisons rarely work out well for Italian whites, but at one of our recent tastings, Cascina Val del Prete’s “Luèt” broke through in a big way.This shouldn’t come as any surprise, given some of the elite Piedmontese producers who’ve championed the Arneis variety—Vietti, Bruno Giacosa, Ceretto—but if you’re still skipping past the likes of “Luèt” en route to yet another bottle of Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc, you’re really missing out. This specialty of the Roero DOCG, just north of Barolo, already has more name recognition than most indigenous Italian whites, but taste this 2019 and Arneis will be imprinted in your taste memory permanently. Organically farmed and thrumming with energy, it will remind you of a