Sandro Fay Rosso di Valtellina

Very delicate almost eteric wine. At the palate similar to best burgundy wines.

Dusty, quite compressed yet still distinctive nose at first, with perhaps some cocoa and tobacco notes opening up later. Clean-cut and refined on the palate with very long, structured finish. Some notes of Nebbiolo fruit, with hints of strawberries / candied fruit. Really nice wine to drink with or without food but the tannins seem to "melt" really into the structure of the wine when matched with food (braised beef in this case), sometimes rounding out into an almost chocolatey …

Juicy cherry fruit with plenty of cut; I did not detect the green streak experienced by some. Great, gulpable pizza wine. Perfect at $12.

Very green; it felt tight, and a day of breathing didn't really help it to open up.

A name I automatically rely on for competent wines up and down the Valtellina spectrum, this appeared unbidden for $32 as a house selection on the wine list of Morandi in Manhattan. Too good to be true, me thought. The nose was appealing enough, but my ever attentive better half detected a grassy note that I initially lost as I appreciated the cherry and tar aromas that easily expressed themselves. Yet with time the so called grass revealed itself as …

Very light purple and crystal clear. Medicinal cherry, dust, and roses on the nose. Light body, high acid, gripping but fast fading tannins. Red berries, mid palate tar, and a chalky long finish. There's little concentration to this wine, it can be described like a great rich Barolo cut with 20% water. Still great value at 13$ for nebbiolo.