2019 Cornarea Roero Arneis 'Enritard'

$47.99

Current stock: 0

Our discovery of Cornarea was the product of many years hard research drinking through the Langhe- a concerted search for an Arneis we could recommend to our customers that the locals there themselves loved and collected for their own cellars. We looked at what winemakers ordered when we ate out with them, what local sommeliers recommended and what bottles we saw in people’s fridges in their homes. The answer was consistently Cornarea. And Cornarea, once we started putting it on our own shelves several years ago, has proven every bit as popular here as it is there.  The property, I found out over a lunch in Alba several years ago with owner Pier Bovone, was the first winery Roero dedicated solely to the production of Arneis and, after the Currados then at Viettiwho have been making Arneis for nearly fifty years, Cornarea has been bottling it the longest. The Rapetti family first planted their vines high on the mineral-rich Cornarea hill, near Canale, in the heart of the Roero, back in 1975- a time when other farmers were busy ripping their Arneis vines out and scrambling to plant other, far more productive and commercially viable varieties. And now, at 50 years old, these vines are among the oldest in the entire area. These old vines produce Arneis with great intensity of fruit and plenty of the variety’s hallmark almondy, white pepper and fennel frond flavors. Weightier and more textural than most versions of Arneis we see, this is a wine for those who love a little more oomph than typical with the variety. But, for even more gravitas, how about Bovone’s ultra-rare and exciting Enritard; the late-bottling of Cornarea Arneis?  Made only when conditions warrant it, a portion of the Cornarea Arneis production is kept aside in tank and aged an additional two years on its lees before being bottled. In most vintages when it’s produced, this amounts to fewer than 3000 bottles. This is where the arc of a traditional Piemontese white crosses that of a classically produced Mosel Riesling Grosse Gewachs- a wine of depth, individuality, character and age-ability. The current vintage of Enritard is 2019 and drinkers will have the rare chance to see what an Arneis can do if left alone in the cellar under perfect conditions for a while. They’ll (You’ll?) discover a wine with pronounced yellow peach and Asian pear flavors but, more importantly, the siphoned-through-stone mineral aromatics so typical of the magnesium-rich soils of the Cornarea vineyard given time for them to emerge. This is a very impressive white, more suited to being served with richer poultry, fish or pork preparations than sloshing down in the backyard like we do so often with the ‘regular’ Cornarea Arneis. With fewer than 250 cases made, we don’t get a lot. But what we got is yours! Order soon.