Roero 2023, Matteo Correggia

The 2023 Roero from Matteo Correggia is a beautiful reminder that Nebbiolo doesn’t always need to arrive wearing a three-piece suit and carrying a cellar key. This is still serious Piedmont, but it leans into Roero’s more graceful side: fragrant red cherry, raspberry, dried herbs, rose, mint, cedar, and a little pipe tobacco tucked underneath. It’s 100% Nebbiolo from fine sandy soils, with a short stainless-steel maceration and at least six months in wood, which keeps the wine fresh, clear, and quietly structured. On the palate, it’s supple and bright, with fine tannins, lifted acidity, and a savory red-fruit core that makes it wildly useful with food. There’s enough grip to remind you what grape you’re drinking, but not so much that dinner needs a strategy meeting. Serve it with roast chicken, pork, mushroom pasta, salumi, aged cheeses, or pizza with enough char and herbs to make the bottle feel very pleased with itself. 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!