Dry-stone retaining walls, built without mortar, stacked by hand over centuries to hold the terraces in place against gravity. This is the first thing you notice, walking up through the Grumello vineyards towards the villa.
Valtellina has an estimated 2,500 kilometres of them; every single one has to be maintained by the people who farm behind it. The valley itself runs east to west, which sounds unremarkable until you realise how unusual it is in the Alps. Most alpine valleys run north to south, putting their slopes in shadow for half the day. Here, the Adda River has carved a corridor that keeps the northern hillside facing south, in full sun, from morning to sunset. At elevations between 300 and 800 metres, on gradients steep enough to make a tractor useless, Nebbiolo, locally called Chiavennasca, manages to ripen; what the wine world calls heroic viticulture.
The Appellations – Reading the Label Before Opening the Bottle
Alpi Retiche IGT is the most flexible designation, covering whites, rosés, reds, sparkling wines, and late-harvest styles made from a wide range of grapes, international varieties included, alongside the historic local ones. It is the designation producers reach for when the grape or the technique does not fit the DOCG framework (the case of Marsetti’s IM series), and it is where the next generation of winemakers is experimenting.
Rosso di Valtellina DOC is the entry point into the valley’s red wine tradition: predominantly Chiavennasca, vinified for freshness and meant to be enjoyed young, without ceremony.
Valtellina Superiore DOCG is where things get serious. The DOCG status, granted in 1998, applies to wines from the best-exposed slopes between Buglio in Monte and Tirano, requiring at least 24 months of ageing with a minimum of 12 in oak. A Riserva version demands 36 months. Five historic sub-zones sit within the DOCG: Maroggia, Sassella, Inferno, Valgella, and Grumello, each with its own character, soil, and microclimate.
Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG (also Sfursat) is the valley’s most singular creation: Nebbiolo grapes partially dried for around two months before fermentation, producing a wine of considerable power; think Amarone in spirit, but with the Alpine acidity and grip that Nebbiolo never fully surrenders. Its DOCG status was awarded in 2003.
Valtellina is the only Italian wine region to hold two separate DOCG designations within the same production zone.
The Sub-Zone Grumello – East of Sondrio, Under the Gaze of the Castle
The Grumello sub-zone covers roughly 80 hectares just east of Sondrio, watched over by the medieval Castello di Grumello that gives it its name. The soils are rocky and predominantly gneissic, and the wines that come from them tend towards intensity held in check: firm structure, but never heavy, with a characteristic savoury quality and the kind of tannin that asks for food. The Breva, an afternoon wind that rolls up from Lake Como, is a recurring character in any conversation about these vineyards: it dries the morning humidity off the grapes, keeps fungal disease at bay, and allows farmers to leave the fruit on the vine later into autumn, concentrating flavour without sacrificing freshness.
Alberto Marsetti
Alberto Marsetti grew up in the vineyards with his father and his uncle. In 1986, at 16, he launched his first wine: the Valtellina Superiore DOCG Grumello. The winery now covers 12 hectares of terraced vineyards distributed across several municipalities around Sondrio, with the most prized parcel, Vigna Le Prudenze, visible from the medieval quarter of Scarpatetti, where the cellars are based.
Since 2020 they have released the IM series, from io sono, I am, a set of IGT Alpi Retiche wines that sit outside the DOCG framework by design, giving the winemaking more freedom to explore what Chiavennasca can do as a white, as a rosé, and as an unoaked red. It is a different style from the estate’s core wines, more focused on sustainability, less formal and surely more immediate.
The Visit
We came from Milan by train, with an enthusiasm for walking and a reasonable tolerance for hills. From Sondrio station, it is forty minutes on foot to the villa. The route takes you through the medieval area of Sondrio, the ancient farming district of Scarpatetti that has kept much of its original character: the old farmhouses are still standing, looking out over the same streets they have faced for centuries.
Crossing the neighbourhood and climbing up to Castello Masegra you come across three small chapels marking the points along the route where a religious procession would stop; a testament to popular devotion that has never been abandoned.
The walk then takes you to the Grumello vineyards, uphill along the terraces, past the stone walls, with the city dropping away below and the mountains filling the skyline ahead.
Our host for the morning was Roberta, whose command of the estate’s philosophy, production methods, and individual wines was exceptional. Roberta brought genuine warmth to the proceedings, guiding us through each label with the kind of insight that only comes from real proximity to the land and the work.
The experience Marsetti calls Degustazione in Villa involves the tasting of seven current released estate wines, a board of local salami and aged cheese, and a setting that earns its place in the description. From the terrace you look straight down into Sondrio, with the castle off to the left and the vineyard terraces filling everything in between.
What We Tasted
Impaziente – IGT Alpi Retiche Bianco – 2024
100% Nebbiolo
The first thing to know about Impaziente is that it is made from Nebbiolo, the same grape as Barolo, and the same grape as of every red in this tasting, but vinified as a white wine. The skins never touch the juice, so none of the tannin and colour you associate with the variety makes it across. What you get instead is a wine medium lemon in colour, clean, and quietly aromatic: citrus fruit, a little stone, some jasmine in the background, and a toasty note from the six months in barrel that rounds the whole thing off without dominating. On the palate, it is dry and lively, with more body than the colour suggests. The name (Impatient) reflects the early harvest timing. A good opening move, and an interesting conversation starter if your companions assume Nebbiolo only comes in red.
Impallidito – IGT Alpi Retiche Rosato – 2025
100% Nebbiolo
Impallidito (Faded) is made by bleeding juice from the Grumello DOCG fermentation early, leaving the skins to concentrate what remains. The result is a rosé with more structure than the category usually promises. There is red fruit on the nose (raspberry, pomegranate, a hint of blood orange), and on the palate, it is dry, with real freshness and an alcohol strength that you feel as warmth rather than heat. This is not just a summer-terrace rosé, or rather, it is, but it would also hold its own with a main course.
Nebbiolo – IGT Alpi Retiche Rosso – 2024
Nebbiolo (prevalentemente)
Where the DOCG range carries the weight of tradition and ageing requirements, this one is designed for a Tuesday evening. Light ruby, red fruit on the nose: strawberry, cherry, a little plum, and on the palate, it is fresh, with fine tannins and enough structure to take it through a meal without demanding your full attention. It went particularly well with the salami. Whether that was the intention or a happy coincidence, it worked.
Rosso di Valtellina DOC – 2024
Nebbiolo con Pignola, Rossola e Brugnola
First made in 1991, this is the estate’s most approachable DOCG-adjacent wine, though technically a DOC, it is very much in the same family as the Superiore range. Vinified in stainless steel with no oak, it keeps the grape’s natural freshness intact: violet on the nose, red cherry and strawberry on the palate, with lively acidity and a clean, uncomplicated finish. The kind of wine that makes you understand why Valtellina’s locals drink Chiavennasca with everything.
Valtellina Superiore Grumello DOCG – 2023
100% Nebbiolo
The wine that started the winery in 1986, and still the clearest expression of what Marsetti is about. After at least 24 months of ageing, including a year in Slavonian oak, it arrives with more complexity than the previous three: dark cherry, violet, a little forest floor and spice, and a structure that still feels young for a 2023. The tannins are firm and present. Give it another few years and it will be considerably more interesting. Open it now with something substantial: a risotto, or a braise that can hold its own.
Valtellina Superiore Grumello DOCG – Vigna Le Prudenze – 2024
100% Nebbiolo
The Le Prudenze vineyard sits between 450 and 650 metres, those dry-stone walls just behind the villa. The Breva does its best work here, and the grapes are left on the vine until early November, significantly later than most of the valley. The result is fewer than 9,000 bottles of something with noticeably more weight and depth than the Grumello: dark fruit, liquorice, a long tobacco-tinged finish, and tannins that feel smooth despite the wine’s youth. The table went quiet when we tasted it.
Sfursat di Valtellina DOCG – 2019
100% Nebbiolo
100% Nebbiolo
The Sfursat is where Valtellina’s history becomes impossible to ignore. The wine has been documented since the 14th century; in the 16th century a writer called Ortensio Lando described it; for most of that history it was considered a restorative, given by the spoonful to the sick. The modern version involves two months of drying the harvested grapes, concentrating everything (sugar, acidity, flavour, structure) before a long fermentation and nearly two years of ageing, at least twelve months in oak. The 2019 is at a generous stage of its life: dried cherry, coffee, tobacco, dark spice, a little cedar. It is high in alcohol, and the wine carries it well. The finish is very long. A wine for the end of the evening, or for the kind of game dish that only appears on autumn menus.
Getting Back
The return walk to Sondrio takes you back down through the same terraces, past the same walls, with the valley opening up below in the early afternoon light. We boarded the train back to Milan having tasted seven wines across the full range of what this family and this sub-zone can produce. Marsetti is a winery that knows exactly what it is: a small, family-run operation in a landscape that requires hard work, making wines that are specific to a place and unapologetic about where they come from.
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