2023 Giovanni Almondo Roero Arneis ‘Bricco delle Ciliegie’

$31.99 per bottle, SOLID CASE $360/$30

The iconic Giovanni Almondo Arneis ‘Bricco Ciliegie’ really needs no introduction here at PRIMA 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 series of switchback hills were, 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, here and there, by some really old, very 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 first planted Bricco Ciliegie, is one of Arneis’ best-known champions now, producing around 55,000 bottles total of two distinctly different cuvees. Besides an easier-going, all stainless-fermented cuvee, there is the wine sourced directly from the Bricco. Domenico ferments most of the fruit in steel under a blanket of gas where it sits on its lees for six months, while a second portion is fermented in new barriques- small oak barrels- that add richness, texture and a bit of 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 all of 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. Always better some six months after release and then for the next three to six years, it’s always worth having a case (or two) of this in the larder.  Drink this lovely, perennial PRIMA Vini favorite alongside richer antipasti dishes (like Vitello Tonnato), herby salads with warm goat or Mozzarella rounds, lighter fish dishes and pastas dressed with your favorite pesto, shrimps or clams or even a pork ragu.  Very highly recommended.