Roero Arneis La Val dei Preti 2019, Matteo Correggia

La Val dei Preti is Correggia’s more serious take on Arneis, from an old-vine site that gives the grape a little more depth and staying power. The 2019 has had time to move past simple freshness into something more layered: yellow apple, ripe pear, chamomile, honeyed citrus, almond, and a faint salty-mineral edge. The palate is fuller and more textured than the standard Arneis, with rounded fruit, gentle grip, and enough acidity to keep everything upright. This is still a white wine for the table, but it has a little more “bring me the good chicken” energy. Try it with roast poultry, mushroom dishes, richer seafood, tajarin with butter and sage, or aged sheep’s milk cheese. About the Winery Matteo Correggia was a true visionary in Roero, Italy. He saw the potential of his land before many others and worked hard to put it on the map. Although Matteo passed away many years ago, his children and widow have taken over the family business, and his son, Giovanni, now runs the show! Roero is a small town to the north of the more famous Piedmont wine regions, Barolo and Barbaresco, but more importantly, it is on the other side of the Po river, and its soils are much younger. Even more importantly, those soils are loaded with sand. And seashells! When you come to the store, ask us about the seashells we saw when we visited this wonderful place in 2013. Sand has a tendency to bring out the aromatics of wine grapes, especially when compared with the clay soils of Barolo and Barbaresco. So even though the grapes grown in this commune are the same ones grown in other parts of northern Italy, their expression is more exuberant, and in our eyes, more enticing!