The scene- two Piemontese winemakers, both from Roero, facing each other in front of PRIMA Vini’s Italian white shelf.
Domenico Almondo glares at Pier Bovone. 
Pier glares back. 
‘This shelf ain’t big enough for the both of us,’ Pier snarls.
‘You’re derned tooten’,’ Domenico snaps back, menacingly twirling his corkscrew….
‘Whoa!  Whoa! Down boys,’ I intercede.  ‘You know there can be more than one good Roero Arneis on the shelf, right?  Look!  We have Deltetto, Correggia, Giacosa, even Cornarea’s rare 2019 Arneis Riserva!  Can’t we all get along?’
Neither of these two are, alas, in the mood to play nice. I’m lucky they’re not coming after me!  It looks like the duel is on. 
Who will come out on top? 
YOU get to be the judge.  Both of our favorite Roero Arneises are on special today and you are hereby instructed to vote with your pocketbook!  Will it be the brighter, crisper Giovanni Almondo Bricco Ciliegie?  It’s plenty rich but hits all the high notes too.  Or will it be Pier Bovone’s iconic Cornarea from Cornarea hill in Canale?  Pier’s is more a serious, brooding sort with a bit of lees contact that adds a bit more depth and an aura of gravitas to the wine.  Both are hitting their peak now at two years after the harvest and awaiting your judgement.   
The Almondo really needs no introduction here but, in case you are one of the few who have yet to discover the joys of this delicious Roero Arneis, here is a word of explanation. The vineyard is named ‘Hilltop of Cherries’ as this broad, quite steep hill was, until some eighty or ninety years ago, an expansive cherry orchard in Vezza d’Alba, in the heart of the Roero region of Piemonte. The vines that now dot the hill were planted in the nineteen eighties, one of the first new plantings of Arneis since the war, and the vine rows are still punctuated by some really old, really gnarly cherry trees. To see this patchwork of vineyards and trees in the spring, when the cherries are in bloom, makes the trip out to this distant part of the Roero, across the Tanaro River from Alba, an absolute pilgrimage. The genial but driven Domenico Almondo, whose father Giovanni planted Bricco Ciliegie, is one of Arneis’ best-known champions now, producing around 55,000 bottles total of two distinctly different cuvees. Besides a simpler, all stainless-fermented cuvee, there is the wine sourced from the Bricco. Domenico ferments most of the fruit in steel under gas where it sits on its lees for six months, while a second portion is fermented in new barriques that add richness, texture and spice to the finished wine. Bottling the finished cuvee under pressure typically gives the wine a bit of bubbly prickle when it’s young but, after a few months, that gives way to Arneis’ gorgeous, very focused green almond-y, Granny Smith apple and wintergreen-like flavors. The secret is in the texture. The barrel fermented portion adds weight and palate appeal to a grape than can be very delicate, even brittle. Lovely and a perennial PRIMA Vini favorite.

2022 Cornarea Roero Arneis 

https://primavini.com/2022-cornarea-roero-arneis/

The discovery of Cornarea was the product of several years hard research in the Langhe- a search for an Arneis we could recommend to our customers that the locals there themselves loved.  I looked at what winemakers ordered when I ate out with them, what local sommeliers recommended, and what bottles I saw in people’s fridges.  The answer was consistently Cornarea.  And Cornarea, once we started putting it on our own shelves, has proven every bit as popular here as it is there.   The property, I found out over a lunch in Alba with owner Pier Bovone, was the first in Roero dedicated solely to the production of Arneis and, after the Currados then at Vietti, who 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 others were busy ripping their Arneis vines out and scrambling to plant other, far more productive varieties. And now, at over 45 years old, they 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.  A little weightier and more textural than most versions of Arneis we see, this is Arneis for those who love a little more oomph.

Let’s show these two would-be cowboys there’s a new sheriff in town and that it’s YOU!  Take ‘em both home and see which of these excellent wines you like better- or, if you’re me, you’ll love them the same!