Wine tasting in Italy: Conti Sertoli Salis in the Valtellina

While this shouldn’t be a blog about “what I did on my weekend”, when that has been wine tasting or cellar visits, then I figure I can include it. Two events I’ve been to recently have been quite different one from the other, and have certainly taught me if not about wine, then about people.

A while ago I had the pleasure of a cellar visit and wine tasting in Italy, in Lombardy’s Valtellina region. The evening was organised by the Italian sommeliers association at the Conti Sertoli Salis company, in the old palace of the noble family’s original house.

The wine tasting was one of old vintages of Salis wines which, typical of this region, use the nebbiolo grape. While the first two wines were disappointing, a little over the hill in my opinion, the evening built up from the Valtellina Sforzato Canua, to the ‘grand cru’ from Salis – the Feudo dei Conti, in its first market release.

It was a pleasant enough evening, but I didn’t walk away having bought any wine. This is a problem given what we consider the purpose behind these wine tasting events to be. I just didn’t feel captured enough to purchase and the purported “old vintage” prestige was lost on me.

The thing that fascinates and disappoints me about Italy is its stubborn and undemocratic insistence on the aristocracy. While the current management of Conti Sertoli Salis doesn’t have much to do with the historic Italian Count family’s ownership, the material we were given on the night, and the website, is a lot about their prestigious and pedigree roots.

Can’t we just make good wine? This is a topic I will possibly return to, and it could be my stubborn insistence on Australian egalitarian values (sometimes an exercise in smoke screens with us, too). But given that the Conti Sertoli Salis representative at a recent wine tasting open to all sommelier members refused a friend of mine service of an expensive bottle (the Feudo dei Conti I suspect), as he wasn’t a distributor, I feel it’s pertinent to the discussion. Only an economic outcome was good enough to warrant a taste.

This is highly disappointing because the Valtellina, despite contrary accusations, is more friendly and welcoming than that; and frankly 54 euros for an un-established wine from the Valtellina is a price outside of the market norm. The Feudo dei Conti is a good wine, but it has to play the game in the valley as well.