Valtellina Superiore

Italy · DOCG (PDO) · Lombardia · 1 commune(s)

Styles

Natural factors

The Valtellina Superiore vineyard area sits on the south-facing slopes of the Rhaetian side, at elevations ranging from 300 metres up to a maximum of 700 metres, with the sole exception of two alluvial fans in the widest part of the valley.
The soils of the Valtellina Superiore vineyard are predominantly sandy, at around 70%, and silty, at around 18%, with no limestone, deriving from weathered granitic rock and with a rare clay fraction of less than 10%.
The soils are by their nature shallow, with a workable depth ranging from 40 to 120 centimetres, and it is not uncommon to see vines driving their roots directly into the fissures of the bedrock.
The Valtellina Superiore zone is sheltered to the north and east by the Rhaetian Alps chain, with all peaks above 3,000 metres and summits exceeding 4,000 metres, while to the south the Orobie Alps chain encloses it in a kind of amphitheatre.

Human factors

From 1550 to 1797 Valtellina was territory of the Grey League, and the first export trade in wine was a consequence of its economic relations with the courts of central and northern Europe.
The rationalisation and intensification of vine cultivation dates first to Romanesque colonisation and subsequently, in the medieval period between the tenth and eleventh centuries, to the movement of the magistri comacini and to the Benedictine monks.

Terroir / wine link

The substantial mass of stones and rock that characterises the terracing — with gradients in some cases exceeding 70% — causes the air temperatures recorded in the vineyard to be consistently 4–5 °C higher than those on the flat valley floor.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

About this boundary

Area: the official production zone published by the regional geoportal (Lombardia).