Roero Riserva Ròche d'Ampsèj 2020, Matteo Correggia

Ròche d’Ampsèj is the deeper, more powerful side of Matteo Correggia’s Roero lineup. It’s still Roero, so the wine keeps its perfume and lift, but this one brings more concentration, more tannin, and a darker register of fruit. Look for black cherry, dried raspberry, rose, tobacco, truffle, licorice, warm spice, and a subtle oak polish. The palate is firm and layered, with ample tannins wrapped around ripe fruit, savory earth, and a long, structured finish. It’s the bottle for when dinner has ambition: braised beef, lamb, wild mushroom pasta, roasted game, aged cheeses, or a very patient conversation over the last glass. Serious Nebbiolo, but thankfully not humorless. 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!