BIN905
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2007 Carema
Ferrando
A couple of years ago I was given a copy of Neal Rosenthal’s book, Reflections of a Wine Merchant – a biography of sorts written by one of America’s most dynamic wine importers. Mr. Rosenthal is a big supporter of the concept of terroir and in his book he devotes an entire chapter to the wines of Ferrando, located in Piedmont’s Carema zone about 100 kilometres north of Barolo. This is rugged, mountainous country situated at the base of Valle d’Aosta, a difficult place to grow grapes to be sure but an area where Roberto Ferrando’s family has been making wine since 1900. His production is based primarily on two grapes, Nebbiolo for the red wines and the rare Erbaluce for the whites. After I read the chapter on Ferrando – described by Mr. Rosenthal as his desert island wines - I was intrigued and so I contacted Roberto Ferrando to see if he had any wine to sell. At the time he was sold out but he told me he would let me know when the next vintage was ready and perhaps we could proceed then. In 2011 we were sent an offer along with some samples and we were blown away by what we tasted. The Nebbiolo wines are spectacularly aromatic but unlike their cousins in Barolo they offer a level of finesse and elegance that Barolo offers only after many years in the bottle. The white label Carema drinks beautifully now while the black label is a great candidate for the cellar and will pay handsome dividends in about five years’ time. The white Erbaluce wines offer lots of minerality with notes of white orchard fruits and toasted almonds. We also receievd a lovely sparkling Erbaluce produced in the traditional Champagne method along with some sweet Erbaluce made in the passito style from dried grapes, remarkable stuff. To finish things off we have a beautifully silky grappa produced from Nebbiolo, all in all a phenomenal lineup. See our exclusives section for prices.
Region: Piedmont
