The history of Mamete Prevostini winery begins in Mese, a small village in Valchiavenna in the province of Sondrio, 15 kilometers north of Lago di Como, in 1928, with the creation of an artisan company dedicated to the production of fruit and vegetables, wine and sausages. It is a local activity that has as its operating center the family’s Crotto, a typical natural cavity formed in prehistoric times that guarantees ideal temperatures for the preservation of food and drinks. The example of his grandfather and father lead the young Mamete, in the 90s, to continue the family business, with particular attention to the wine production. Mamete, however, dreams of step change and so, after graduating from the wine school in Conegliano, begins to bottle and sell the wine that, until then, was served exclusively at the family restaurant.
Making wine in Valtellina is for the young Mamete a real choice of life that requires great determination: in those areas, in fact, the vineyards are not hospitable at all, characterized by altitudes between 400 and 700 meters and by extremely harsh winters. In addition, it is necessary to build rough and steep terraces that steal arable land to the mountain and that, not surprisingly, have been defined “vertical land” and recognized intangible UNESCO heritage.
In the 30 hectares owned, Mamete practices an heroic, careful and ecologically inspired viticulture, with almost all the operations carried out manually, also because it would be rather complicated to use a tractor with those slopes. In addition, since 2013, the cellar has doubled: the one that also included the old Crotto has been destined to the aging of bottles while the new one, in Postalesio, 10 kilometers from Sondrio, in the heart of Valtellina, has become the driving force of the company. It is a cube of 300 square meters, built according to the maximum energy saving possible (Mamete likes to say that “you can heat it with a match and cool it with an ice cube”): use of renewable energy and processing grapes by falling are only two of the measures that have led to the “Casaclima Wines” certification (the first in Lombardy and the third in Italy).
Among the wines produced the Sassella San Lorenzo deserves a special mention: it is a wine born from a real Clos fenced, about 450 meters high, with a long and significant history. This single vineyard belongs to the convent of San Lorenzo, just outside Sondrio, and had been cultivated for years by the Sisters of the Holy Cross of the Menzingen Order, in particular by Sister Ludovica who had passed the existence by uniting, daily, the meticulous manual work and moments of prayer and silence. Around the end of the 1990s it was Sister Ludovica herself who asked for some suggestions to improve the production of that wine, and so began a collaboration that lasted until 2001, when Mother Superior asked Mamete to take care, in the first person, of the vineyard and the vinification. Thanks to this partnership it was born, in 2005, the first vintage of this wine, a pure Nebbiolo (or Chiavennasca, as it is called in those areas) that, after fermentation and maceration of 15 days, ages in large oak barrels for 16 months and, for another 10, in bottle.
The 2016 vintage has a light garnet red color, with a range of aromas that opens with notes of red currant, raspberries, Tea rose and pot pourri, followed by pomegranate, orange peel, eucalyptus citrate and vanilla, with final echoes of blond leather, vinyl and boisée. The mouthfeel, despite its rather broad body, strikes for its elegant freshness, both balsamic and citrine, and for its silky tannins that gently caress the palate; all enriched by the retro-olfactory return of fresh red fruit together with a hint of hematicity/ferrosity on which closes the excellent length sip.
Rating: 92/100
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