AR.PE.PE Sassella Ultimi Raggi 2018

A rare, late-harvest masterpiece of mountain Nebbiolo (Chiavennasca), sourced from the highest reaches of the Sassella sub-zone at over 600 meters elevation. Translating to "Last Sunbeams," this cuvée is crafted from grapes left on the vine until late autumn—often into November—allowing them to gently over-ripen in the crisp Alpine sun before being harvested by hand. Matured slowly in large neutral chestnut and oak casks, the wine opens with an ethereal, deeply concentrated bouquet of dried cranberries, dark cherry preserve, wild thyme, orange blossom, and crushed granite. On the palate, it seamlessly pairs its rich, sun-warmed fruit intensity with razor-sharp mountain acidity and fine-grained, firm tannins, resulting in a profoundly complex, age-worthy red of extraordinary lift and length.

POINTS WORTH NOTING :

• Ultimi Raggi comes from the highest point of the Sassella subzone, an area called "Ere" reaching 600 metres — the very upper limit of the appellation, where grapes need several extra weeks beyond neighbouring vineyards to reach full phenolic ripeness.

• The grapes are not picked until mid-to-late November, right before the first snow — by then they've partially dehydrated on the vine from the wide day-to-night temperature swings, concentrating both sugar and tannin-softening ripeness, similar in principle to Valtellina's dried-grape Sforzato wines, but achieved entirely in the vineyard rather than in a drying loft.

• This is Ar.Pe.Pe.'s most overtly rich and powerful Sassella bottling — critics have specifically noted its unusual sweetness and density of mid-palate fruit compared to the rest of the range, a direct result of that extended hang time.

• Soil: the same iron-rich, rocky Sassella soil as Rocce Rosse and Stella Retica, but at greater altitude — the site is defined as much by its lateness of ripening and extreme exposure as by the soil itself.

• Vinification: picked softly and pressed once fully dehydrated and dry at the press — the overripeness naturally tempers what would otherwise be quite nervy, high tannins, and extended aging in large barrels further smooths the wine's naturally dense texture.