AR.PE.PE Sassella Rocce Rosse 2018

The flagship expression of mountain Nebbiolo (Chiavennasca) from the Perego family, sourced from iron-rich, iron-stained red granite terraces in the heart of the steep Sassella sub-zone. Considered the benchmark "Gran Riserva" of the estate, it is produced only in top vintages and undergoes traditional extended skin maceration, followed by nearly four years in large 50HL chestnut and oak casks and extensive bottle aging before release. Pale garnet with brick hues, it unfolds with an ethereal, highly complex bouquet of dried cherries, blood orange peel, pressed roses, tobacco leaf, and subtle Alpine spice. Silky, taut, and weightless on the palate, 'Rocce Rosse' balances racy mountain acidity with refined, fine-grained tannins and a signature salty, iron-mineral drive, delivering legendary depth and cellar-worthy elegance.

POINTS WORTH NOTING :

• Rocce Rosse is technically Ar.Pe.Pe.'s largest cru by area, but the fruit for this wine comes only from the higher part of the vineyard, 400–500 metres up, where the soil is thinnest and most iron-rich — giving the wine its distinctive meaty, powerful, persistent character.

• This wine carries real historical weight: it was the first bottling of the reborn estate in 1984, after Arturo Pelizzatti Perego spent years rebuilding the family's vineyard holdings following the 1973 sale that had split up the original family winery.

• Soil: the upper part of Rocce Rosse, thin and rocky with heavy iron content — the "red rock" the wine is named for is red granite, visible right at the surface where the soil all but disappears.

• Vinification: roughly 97 days of maceration in 50hl wooden vats, then about 34 months aging across large barrels, concrete and bottle — broadly comparable in scale to Buon Consiglio, but on Sassella's harder, more mineral site.