Balgera, Valtellina Superiore Riserva "Valgella"

SommSelect subscribers have seen many rhapsodic odes to Italy’s Valtellina region in this space. By now, anyone who loves nuanced, soaringly aromatic, long-maturing red wines has Nebbiolo from Valtellina in regular rotation. But still, today’s offer is special. In addition to a “young” single-vineyard wine from Balgera that is nearly a decade old (it’s a 2015, and yes that’s their current release), we’ve got a small amount of their 2005 Riserva from that same cru-designated vineyard, “Valgella.” Both are absolute steals, and both reinforce two salient points about Nebbiolo from this part of the world: First, a wine does not need to be “big” to age for decades—it needs to have acidity and balance. Second, our tasting of Balgera’s dynamic duo was merely the most recent instance when a Nebbiolo-based wine was the undisputed winner on a table full of benchmark bottles from around the world. The obvious move here is to take at least one of each of the ’05 and ’15, for what promises to be a