Nino Negri, 5 Stelle, Sforzato di Valtellina, 2013, DOCG
Tonight, we had a real treat. We shared a bottle of Sforzato (Sfursat). If you have never had Sforzato, or even heard of it, it is for good reason. This rare wine is difficult to find outside of the Valtellina region of Lombardy in Northern Italy, and nearly impossible to get your hands on within the United States. When most people hear the word Sforzato, they think of the Sforza Castle, built by Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, in the 15th century. Strangely, even the store where we found it (we bought both bottles available) were unsure where they came from as their computer system revealed none in stock and no history of the two we were purchasing.
In what seemed like divine intervention, we able to polish one off and store one away in our wine cellar. Several aspects of the rare Sforzato make it a unique wine. Sforzato, which means “strained” in Italian, is created by placing harvested grapes on a straw mat for several months, drying them out to concentrate the sugar, leading to a wine with higher alcohol (at least 14%). If this sounds familiar, it is because Italy’s famous similar wine from the north, Amarone, is created with a similar technique. The important difference between the lesser known Sforzato is that, unlike Amarone’s composition of mostly Corvina, some Rondinella, and several other approved grape varietals, it is produced from Chiavennasca. Chiavennasca is the local name for the famous Nebbiolo grape, and this is what makes Sfursat so magical: it combines the amazing procedure to make Amarone with one of Italy’s most amazing grapes.
This combination is not without health benefits, of course. Masters of the art of traditional winemaking, the Italians struck gold when they perfected this method. Sforzato is similar to Amarone in that it is a powerful dry red wine, and the grape desiccation process leaves it with incredibly high levels of polyphenols and tannins. This method increases the amount of sugar; however, the fermentation procedure makes up for this as much of the sugar is converted to alcohol to produce this dry wine, leaving the sugar amount to around 0-10 grams per liter, or 1-2 grams per glass.
The Sforzato that we were lucky enough to get our hands on was a 2013 bottle of Nino Negri 5 Stelle Sfursat DOCG. Pouring the wine into our glass revealed a garnet color, much like the bricks of an old school house. The taste brought us back to our travels throughout Northern Italy, where we were first introduced to Sforzato. It was full-bodied with cinnamon, baking spices, a touch of pepper, tar, and black licorice, ripe red fruit, and acid that is expected from an Italian wine of this grape varietal. The wine finished with traces of roasted hazelnuts. Containing polyphenols and tannins, you can guess that the wine packs a sculpted punch. These benefits, the complex process of creating this masterful wine, and the rarity also gives it a property that you were probably afraid of – these babies come with a high price tag, so if you are lucky enough to find one of them, expect to pay upwards of $50, make the splurge, and save it for that special occasion.
Tonight, we had a real treat. We shared a bottle of Sforzato (Sfursat). If you have never had Sforzato, or even heard of it, it is for good reason. This rare wine is difficult to find outside of the Valtellina region of Lombardy in Northern Italy, and nearly impossible to get your hands on within the United States. When most people hear the word Sforzato, they think of the Sforza Castle, built by Francesco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, in the 15th century. Strangely, even the store where we found it (we bought both bottles available) were unsure where they came from as their computer system revealed none in stock and no history of the two we were purchasing.
