Proprietà Sperino, `L Franc ******`

Proprietà Sperino is a splendid,12-hectare hillside estate in the small town of Lessona, near Biella in northern Piemonte. Here, the soils were formed over 300 million years ago by the explosion of a supervolcano, creating sandy soils known as “ori di Lessona (Lessona’s gold), which are rich in minerals, particularly manganese and iron. The soil’s extremely low pH (one of the lowest in the wine world) allows the Nebbiolo vines to take on the marked minerality that Lessona is famed for. The wines of Proprietà Sperino are consistently superb, embracing a Burgundian style that is fragrant yet intense.

The estate was inherited by the De Marchi family (who previously owned the top Chianti Classico estate, Isole e Olena) through their relative, Felice Sperino, a passionate viticulturist and professor in Turin. Since the 1970s, Paolo De Marchi dreamed of revitalising Proprietà Sperino. This dream was eventually realised with the help of his son Luca, who now runs the estate and makes the wines with Paolo’s guidance.

Their ‘Rosa del Rosa’ Rosato is a lovely Nebbiolo rosé with a mineral and savoury character. The ‘Uvaggio’, a blend of Nebbiolo, Vespolina and Croatina, is supple yet grainy with a hint of roses on the finish. The Lessona is majestic. Made solely from Nebbiolo, it is intense yet velvety due to the Lessona soils yielding softer tannins than those found in Nebbiolo from the Langhe. The grapes for the Bramaterra DOC hail from the almost 40-year-old ‘Madonna degli Angeli’ vineyard in Brusnengo, planted on soils rich in granite. Medium-bodied with delicate tannins, the wine displays red fruits, pepper and black tea aromas. The single vineyard `Vigna Covà` is in Castello, in the village of Lessona, on a rounded hill 350 metres above sea level. This wine is silky and rounded with dark fruit and clove notes, alongside ripe tannins and a finely integrated finish. Their top wine, ‘L Franc ******’, is an elegant and beautifully balanced Cabernet Franc.