There is a range of former occupations among the new wave of Carema producers but sommelier seems to be particularly popular. That is certainly the case for Matteo and Michele Melfa at Sopravvento: Matteo worked in top restaurants in London, and Michele in a Michelin-starred restaurant close to Carema in Caluso. Having got the winemaking bug, they looked around for a high-quality possibility in their home region. The first plot on the terraces of Carema came from a tip-off from a beautician who, of course, knew all the local gossip. They started work clearing the first overgrown 0.1-hectare plot on 23 December 2019. Matteo took a holiday from London on Christmas Eve and soon found himself grounded in Italy due to Covid. Since that small beginning, they have managed to put together one hectare in various plots. This may not sound a lot, but every tiny patch of land had a different owner, some of whom might prefer to let the land go wild than sell. The two brothers are motivated by a desire to save the past of Carema when the whole hillside was vineyard. And they want to work in a way that is complementary to nature. They are happy to keep some of the trees on their land, they want to hear the birds in the vineyard, and they see grapes as only one part of the picture.
The brothers have strongly complementary characters. Matteo is a self-confessed dreamer, who not only wants to plant vines but also lavender and other flowering plants to make the place beautiful and, eventually, also wants to grow vegetables so as to be able to feed guests from these ancient terraces and increase biodiversity. (Of course, in the past, the villagers grew grain and vegetables under the pergolas that carried the vines.) ‘I feel like a kid with lots of Lego’, he says. Meanwhile, Michele has a more practical bent with a clear focus on growing healthy grapes and making wine. For example, he has done the Simonit & Sirch pruning course. Together, they are a great team.
The plots of vineyard have spectacular views from the heart of the Sillanc zone, at the centre of the horseshoe-shaped amphitheatre in Carema. Matteo does not want to rent plots as he prefers to have full control and plant for the future. ‘We are crazy’ he says as you ascend to above 500 m where his plots reach the woods. The new pergolas have been built, and the plan is to have a modified form of vine training in which, unlike in the past, there is little old wood. This is to reduce the chance of powdery mildew over-wintering there. The Picotendro biotype of Nebbiolo has been planted, in keeping with local tradition. The soil has been manured and sown with clover to help increase the fertility and the amount of organic matter in the fast-draining, sandy soil (the sand component can be as high as 80 per cent).
In the nearby village of Borgofranco d’Ivrea, Matteo has access to a cellar in the historic series of linked caves that have been used for centuries to store wines and other perishables. The Balmetti (‘small caves’ in dialect) are cooled by the flow of cold air from within the hillside, perfect for maturing wine. It is used now for storage and as an informal tasting room. Matteo has yet more dreams, this time to grow more of the characterful white grape variety, Erbaluce, in Borgofranco, where there is land available.
Sopravvento’s Carema DOC is named ‘Heroes’ in homage to David Bowie. The fruit comes from a restored, formerly abandoned Carema vineyard where all the work has to be done by hand. One quarter of the fruit is fermented as whole bunches, and maceration on the skins and, in this case, some stems, lasts for 40 days. In keeping with the entire approach, only ambient yeast is used. After pressing and racking off, the wine is aged for 18-20 months in 225 litre barrels. The first vintage was in second-use oak, but the wood age will then rise.
The approach at Sovravvento is certainly low intervention or even simple. The aim is to let nature speak and to follow intuition. Matteo is convinced that ‘we know more than we think we do’ and that we should trust our intuition. He is nostalgic about his childhood, when he would spend three months of each year with his grandparents, in whose large garden he played collecting snails, frogs, and more. He and Michele are trying to catch some of that rootedness and simplicity in the glass.
Wines
Sopravvento Changes! VdT
Tech sheet: 2019