Wine route
Strada del Vino della Valtellina
2 days, 67 km · 8 stops
Open the driveLombardy · DOCG
Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina DOCG Alpine Nebbiolo from Dried Grapes, Explained
Sforzato di Valtellina is Nebbiolo made from grapes dried for months in the alpine cold. Growers on the terraces above the River Adda pick the best bunches, rest them on racks until at least December, then press them into a dry, warm, full-bodied red. Sfursat is the local spelling of the same wine.
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Decode the label
What the label tells you
One word on the front changes the ageing, the strength and the price.
On the label
Sforzato di Valtellina
one wine, two spellings
90% Nebbiolo dried on racks until December
20 months 12 of them in wood, from 1 April
14% minimum alcohol
Sfursat and Sforzato on a label are the same DOCG; the rulebook allows both names.
In stock from £34.90
The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
The zone is the sunny north bank of the River Adda, from Ardenno in the west to Tirano in the east. It takes every slope between the main valley road and the 700-metre line. At Piateda and Ponte in Valtellina the vineyards run below the road down to the river. Two pockets on the shaded south bank count too, Stazzona above Villa di Tirano and Albosaggia, up to 600 metres. It is much the same terrace country as Valtellina Superiore, seen from the drying room: any steep, stony, well-exposed plot in the zone can make Sforzato.
Inside the zone
300 to 700 m
terrace altitude
2,500 km
dry-stone walls
8 t/ha
maximum grape yield
40 hl/ha
maximum wine yield
1 December
earliest pressing
2003
DOCG since
Click or tap a pin for its estate. The numbered pins match the estate cards below.
Towns worth knowing
Ardenno
Sondrio
Montagna in Valtellina
Poggiridenti
Ponte in Valtellina
Chiuro
Teglio
Bianzone
Villa di Tirano
Tirano
Eighteen communes share the zone along the valley road from Ardenno to Tirano. Chiuro is home to Nino Negri and Rainoldi, the two names most bottles carry.
In the glass
What it tastes like
Cherry
Liquorice
Black pepper
Leather
Vanilla
Rose petal
Violet
Burnt toast
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Nebbiolo (Chiavennasca)The whole wine, picked ripe and driedat least 90%Other red grapes of LombardyNon-aromatic varieties onlyup to 10%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
The grapes dry first on racks in airy rooms from harvest until at least 1 December, and nothing may be added to the must.
20 months before sale 12 of them in wood, counted from 1 April after the harvest.
14% is the floor and no more than 8 tonnes of grapes per hectare may go to the drying room.
Only 40 hectolitres a hectare anything over that, up to 44, is sold as plain Rosso di Valtellina.
No Riserva, no Superiore the rulebook bans both words: one wine, one name, two spellings.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina costs in the UK
Every live Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina listing, cheapest to dearest
6 wines · 6 retailers
Live prices, compared across 6 UK retailers.
Cellar doors · inside the zone
Estates you can visit
Two estates inside the zone open their doors today. A small list, honestly kept: only working cellars with confirmed visits appear here.
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Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No denomination-wide vintage chart is published for Sforzato di Valtellina. The growers' consortium, the body that promotes the Valtellina wines, publishes no year ratings. The one decade review, from AIS Lombardia, covers all Valtellina reds and stops at 2010. Quality is tracked producer by producer.
Buy the current release and give it two to five more years, or hold a strong year for a decade. The drying and the 20 months in the cellar mean it is never sold raw.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina is made
The rulebook starts in the vineyard. At least 90% of the blend is Nebbiolo, called Chiavennasca here, and only steep, stony, well-exposed plots qualify. Growers may pick no more than 8 tonnes of grapes per hectare for drying. The bunches must reach 11% potential alcohol at harvest and 14% after drying. Pressing cannot begin before 1 December. No sugar or concentration may be added: the drying does that work. From those grapes a hectare may give at most 40 hectolitres of wine, about 5,300 bottles. Every wine then rests for 20 months, at least 12 of them in wooden casks, and the clock starts on 1 April after the harvest. The finished wine must reach 14% alcohol. Bottles show the vintage, use dark glass and carry the name in Italian only. The words Riserva and Superiore are banned on the label.
In depth
Sforzato means forced. The name describes what the grapes go through, not the wine. Bunches are picked ripe and healthy, laid on cane racks in dry, airy rooms, and left through the winter. The rest lasts until the end of January, and in some years into February or March. By then the grapes have lost about 30% of their water and their sugar has climbed from 18 or 20% to 26 or 27%. All of that sugar ferments out, so the wine is dry, but it keeps the weight and the dried-fruit warmth of the method. It is the same idea as Amarone, made with Nebbiolo instead of Corvina.
Valtellina runs east to west, so its north bank faces the sun all day. Nebbiolo grows on stone terraces between 300 and 700 metres, held up by more than 2,500 kilometres of dry-stone wall. The soil is crumbled granite, mostly sand, with no limestone. The Rhaetian Alps shelter the valley from the north, Lake Como evens out the temperature, and the vines see more than 1,900 hours of sun a year. Nights before harvest can be 20 degrees cooler than the days, which keeps the fruit fresh.
Vines have grown here since Roman times, and the wine trade took off under Swiss rule from 1550 to 1797, when Valtellina wine went north over the passes by mule. Sforzato was recognised as a DOC in 1968 and became a DOCG in 2003, the first dry red made from dried grapes to reach Italy's top tier. Nino Negri in Chiuro made the style famous. Its 5 Stelle Sfursat was created in 1983 by its then winemaker Casimiro Maule, and it won its first gold medal in 1989. Rainoldi, Mamete Prevostini and Tenuta Scerscé bottle it too. The whole valley has about 800 hectares of vines, so this is never a big-volume wine.
On the table
What to eat with Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina
Warm, soft and dry, it wants rich alpine food: pizzoccheri, braised and slow-cooked meat, mushroom risotto and aged cheese at the end of the meal.
In-depth guide
Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina, answered
Sforzato means forced. The grapes are picked ripe, then dried on racks through the winter until they lose about 30% of their water. That forces the sugar up, and the wine gains weight and warmth. Sfursat is the local dialect form of the same word, and both names are allowed on the label.
No. Sforzato di Valtellina is a dry red. The drying concentrates the sugar, but all of it ferments into alcohol, which is why the rulebook sets a minimum of 14%. What you taste is ripe and dried fruit, not sweetness.
Both are dry reds made from grapes dried after harvest. Sforzato is Nebbiolo grown on alpine terraces in Lombardy, while Amarone is made from Corvina and its partners in the Veneto. Sforzato must rest 20 months, at least 12 of them in wood, and reach 14% alcohol.
Yes. Sforzato di Valtellina and Sfursat di Valtellina are two spellings of one DOCG, and a producer may use either. Nino Negri labels its wine Sfursat, other houses write Sforzato, and the rules behind both bottles are identical.
Rich, slow-cooked dishes. In the valley it goes with pizzoccheri, the buckwheat pasta baked with butter and cheese, and with braised beef. Ossobuco, mushroom risotto and aged hard cheeses all work, because the wine is soft, full and dry with a fresh edge.
Serve it at 16 to 18 degrees and open it an hour or two ahead. The 20 months in the cellar mean it is never sold raw, and a good bottle will keep for a decade. Every label must show the vintage, so you always know how old the wine is.
The drying loses about 30% of the water in the grapes, so each vine gives less wine, and the rulebook caps the yield at 40 hectolitres per hectare. Add 20 months in the cellar before sale, and the price sits above Valtellina Superiore from the same terraces.
Explore more Lombardy
Same region only: the denominations Sforzato di Valtellina/Sfursat di Valtellina drinkers reach for next.
