Valle Roncati is a small producer based in the village of Briona, about 20KM from Novara and 40KM from the start of the Alps. They work with a number of small DOCs and one DOCG, Ghemme. We have selected the wines from two of these.

We are pretty excited about these wines from Valle Roncati, a producer that I have known about for a few years, but have just to decided to start importing.

One is Fara, a tiny DOC which is only 5 hectares in size, amongst the smallest in Italy. The wines are based on Nebbiolo, but peppered with other varieties from the region, namely Vespolina and Uva Rara. The former of these is a black-pepper spicy black variety and the latter, also known as Bonarda Novarese, is also rich and dark, so these varieties bring another dimension to the elegant Nebbiolo.

The other DOC is Sizzano, a sub-region which you will be forgiven for having never heard of before. Also a Nebbiolo with a splash of Vespolina and Uva Rara, but these two wines couldn't be more different from each other, and that just goes to show 'terroir' at work.

These are both Riserva wines from 2013, and I think are some of the most exciting wines from Alto Piemonte I have yet tried. The Fara Riserva 'Ciada' is polished and elegant and if I were to use an analogy from Langhe, this is like Gaja. The Sizzano Riserva 'San Bartolomeo' feels a little more 'let go', it has more developed colour and more mature aromatics and perhaps a little more Burgundian in style. If the Fara is Gaja, then this is certainly Giacosa.

The wines will be arriving some time in early August, when we will also have a small amount of their Nebbiolo Rose, which is a properly grown-up Rose for matching with gastronomy rather than sipping in the garden, although it would be delicious for that as well.