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Mountain Nebbiolo from Inferno, the smallest and hottest slope in Valtellina. Nino Negri farm about a quarter of it. Ripe cherry and plum, sweet spice, a dry hazelnut finish. About £20 to £32 a bottle.
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Cherry and ripe plum come first, then cinnamon and clove. Leather, smoke and tobacco sit behind the fruit. Everyone agrees on the dry, slightly bitter hazelnut finish, Nino Negri's own note included.
Cherry and ripe plum lead, the two fruits Nino Negri themselves put first. Behind the fruit sit cinnamon and clove, with a dried violet note. Leather, smoke and tobacco sit underneath. Inferno's bare rock ripens the fruit hard, and the nose shows it.
Violet
Cherry
Forest berries
Plum
Tobacco
Hazelnuts
Leather
CinnamonDry, firm and a little austere. The tannin has real grip but is not raw, because the wine spends at least a year in small casks before bottling. Mountain acidity runs right through it, so the wine stays lively at 13.5%. Forest berry fruit sits over a stony core.
Long and dry, closing on toasted hazelnut and a mineral, almost salty edge. That slightly bitter close is the house signature on Inferno.
The warmest and ripest corner of Valtellina, and the label that made Nino Negri's name. A well-liked red, and the recent vintages are the ones drinkers like best. Buy it for the table, not the armchair.
Three shops list the 2023, from about £19.50 to £32. That gap is the shop, not the wine. Valtellina makes very little, so a vintage can sell through quickly and the next one arrives dearer.
75cl · Vintage not stated: £28.82, 1 UK retailer
Scored on food, value, cellar life and three more. Inferno is a food wine before anything else. Firm tannin and mountain acidity make it far better at the table than on its own.
Firm tannin and high mountain acidity make this a table wine first. It cuts fat, handles braised meat and stands up to melted alpine cheese.
Around £20 to £32 for a DOCG Nebbiolo grown by hand on terraces. The same grape in Barolo starts at roughly double, so the value here is real.
A DOCG with at least twelve months in wood, firm tannin and good acidity. It will hold about ten years, though it is not built as long as the Riserva.
A distinctive DOCG from a famous Alpine slope, and a talking point at the table. It is not priced or built as a trophy bottle.
Nebbiolo is dry, tannic and austere rather than soft and fruity. Rewarding, but easier to enjoy with food than as a first red.
Most listings sit near £20, which is affordable enough. The wine is demanding on its own, so it earns its place at dinner rather than on the sofa.
Scoring is rule-based and deterministic. The model and weightings are documented in our Wine Fit Score methodology.
A compact view of what the Valtellina Superiore denomination actually requires, and how this bottle sits inside it. Pulled from the official Italian disciplinare.
Spring 2023 was cold and wet in Valtellina. Ripening ran late and picking finished at the end of October, a week behind 2022. The crop came in smaller than the year before, but the cool run-in kept the aromas sharp.
A cold, wet spring pushed ripening late across Valtellina. Picking ran a week behind 2022 and finished at the end of October. The crop was smaller, but the cool run-in kept the aromas sharp and the acidity firm.
A cold, wet spring pushed ripening late across Valtellina. Picking ran a week behind 2022 and finished at the end of October. The crop was smaller, but the cool run-in kept the aromas sharp and the acidity firm.
Drink-now / hold guidance reflects general style cues for this wine, not a forecast for a specific bottle. Where vintage-level editorial notes exist, they appear above.
The cellar has stood at Chiuro, in the middle of Valtellina, since 1897. Inferno is one of its best known labels. Nino Negri work about a quarter of the Inferno slope, including plots named Calvario, Paradiso and Ca' Rossa.
Italian wine law sorts bottles into a pyramid. DOCG sits at the top: tightly drawn boundaries, prescribed grapes, mandatory ageing, government tasting before release. DOC is the same idea with looser thresholds. IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica) is broader still, requiring only that 85% of the grapes come from the named territory.
Valtellina Superiore is in the DOCG tier. That is not a quality verdict, it is a description of how much freedom the producer has at vinification and ageing.
Valtellina Superiore falls within Lombardy, covering South-facing terraces on the north bank of the River Adda between Buglio in Monte and Tirano, province of Sondrio, with five named sub-zones from Maroggia to Valgella. The denomination is further divided into 5 sub-zones.
Wine route
2 days, 67 km · 8 stops
Open the drive
Winery
Chiuro
Made at Nino Negri, Chiuro. Directions
Wine route in the zone: Strada del Vino della Valtellina.
The Inferno slope is held up by dry stone walls. Pruning, picking and carrying the fruit down are all done by hand. Labour, not oak, is the single biggest cost in this bottle.
The whole Inferno slope runs to 48 hectares between Poggiridenti and Tresivio, and Nino Negri farm about a quarter of it. There is a hard ceiling on how much can ever be made.
The wine rests at least a year in small casks, then more time in bottle. That is a year of cellar space and unsold stock before any money comes back.
Duty on a still red at 13.5% is £2.67 a bottle, and VAT takes a fifth of the shelf price. On the £19.50 listing that is about £5.90 gone before the wine is paid for.
Barolo and Barbaresco carry a premium this valley has never had. The same Nebbiolo grape sells here for £20 to £32, and that gap is where the value sits.
Nino Negri bottle more than 40 wines from Valtellina out of one cellar at Chiuro. Fixed costs spread across that range in a way a single-vineyard estate cannot match.
Dishes that go with this wine
Nino Negri name roast red meat, lamb, game and mature cheese on their own sheet. Valtellina's kitchen adds pizzoccheri and polenta. The tannin and the acidity do the work: they cut through fat and reset the palate between mouthfuls.
Melted alpine cheese coats the mouth and dulls it. The tannin in Inferno scrubs that coating away, and the acidity resets the palate for the next forkful. Valtellina eats this pairing at home for a reason: the wine and the dish grew up on the same slope.
Try with: Pizzoccheri · Polenta alla Valdostana · Ossobuco alla Milanese · More pairings →
Hours of braising leave rich, gelatinous meat and a heavy sauce. The acidity cuts straight through that fat, which is why a firm Nebbiolo works on brasato and a soft, low-acid red goes flat. Inferno's grip also stands up to the depth of the sauce.
Try with: Brasato al Barolo · Ossobuco alla Milanese · Beef stew · More pairings →
Nebbiolo grown on rock picks up dried leaf, leather and forest floor as it ages. Those notes meet porcini halfway instead of fighting them. The wine does not add sweetness, so the mushroom flavour stays the loudest thing on the plate.
Try with: Porcini mushroom risotto · Polenta alla Valdostana · More pairings →
Nino Negri put game and lamb on their own sheet. Both have a strong, slightly wild flavour that a light red would vanish under. Inferno matches that weight without smothering it, and its tannin handles the fat on a shoulder or a shank.
Try with: Venison Stew · Rack of lamb · Leg of lamb · Roast Lamb with Mint Sauce
Salt makes tannin taste softer and fruit taste riper. A hard aged cheese therefore flatters this wine rather than fighting it. Keep to the firm, nutty end of the cheeseboard: the toasted hazelnut in the finish picks up the same note.
Try with: Cheese board · Strong cheddar cheese · Pecorino sardo e pan carasau
Chilli heat and tannin multiply each other, so the wine turns harsh and drying. Sweet sauces make the fruit taste thin and sour by comparison. Delicate raw fish is simply flattened, and the tannin can leave a metallic edge with oily seafood.
Skip with: Lamb bhuna · Sweet and sour pork · Sashimi · Oysters · Pairing guide →
This is the everyday Inferno, not the single-vineyard Ca' Guicciardi bottling. At least twelve months in small wood before bottling gives it shape without a heavy oak flavour. Drink from release to roughly ten years on.
Peak around 2028. Best in the years above; holds without falling over either side.
A short splash decant softens the first-pour edge and opens the aromatics.
Aim for the cooler end on a warm day; warmer end opens up more aromatics.
A DOCG with at least twelve months in wood, firm tannin and good acidity. It will hold about ten years, though it is not built as long as the Riserva.
£19.50 for a 75cl bottle of the 2023, at XtraWine, is the best price we track, and we have no signal of further discounting.
Read directly from each retailer’s public product page once a day. Last refresh: 28 Oct 2026, 09:08 BST. We do not hold stock and we do not accept payment for placement.
Confidence · HighDrawn from what drinkers consistently report on Vivino, summarised in our own words. A crowd read across many tasters, not a single critic. Drinkers score it 3.6 out of 5 from 4,297 ratings on Vivino.
Confidence · MediumFrom the official Italian disciplinare for this denomination, cross-checked against the Ministry of Agriculture register.
Confidence · HighOur reading of the price, drawn from the disciplinare, public UK duty rates, and typical landed-cost benchmarks. Not a quote from the producer or a retailer.
Confidence · MediumStyle guidance for this kind of wine at this price point. Treat it as advice, not a forecast for the bottle in your hand.
Confidence · MediumRipe cherry and plum lead. Behind the fruit sit cinnamon and clove, with a dried violet note. Drinkers also pick out leather, smoke and tobacco. The palate is dry and firm, with grippy tannin and bright acidity. It closes on toasted hazelnut and a stony edge.
Inferno is the smallest, steepest and hottest of Valtellina's four named slopes, and it is named for that heat. Bare rock throws the sun back at the vines by day and gives the warmth back at night. The whole slope runs to 48 hectares, about 70 football pitches, between Poggiridenti and Tresivio. Nino Negri farm roughly a quarter of it.
One grape only. It is 100% Nebbiolo, which Valtellina calls Chiavennasca. The vines sit at 350 to 550 metres on terraces held up by dry stone walls, facing south.
Pizzoccheri is the local answer, the buckwheat pasta baked with cheese and cabbage from Valtellina itself. It also works with ossobuco, slow-braised beef, porcini risotto, roast lamb and hard mountain cheese.
Drink it from release to about ten years after the harvest. The 2023 is ready now and should hold well into the early 2030s. Stand the bottle up for a day first, as older ones throw a light sediment.
Between about £20 and £32 across the shops we track. That is a DOCG mountain Nebbiolo for the price of a decent Chianti, and well under what Barolo asks for the same grape.
4 retailers
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Valtellina Superiore
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£18.00
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