Sperino are a noble family of surgeons and physicians, like many medicos around the world, they shared a keen interest in things oenological. Their heirs returned to their roots at the Castle of Lessona in 1999, to grow healthy grapes and make good wine. Coste della Sesia is mostly Nebbiolo, with inclusions of Vespolina and Croatina grapes, hand picked off the Ormeggio, Castagnola and Belvedere vineyards at Lessona in Orolungo. A parcel from Madonna degli Angeli in neighbouring Forte, contributes savouryness and a measure of elegant minerality.
Fruit is harvested off vines grown to altitudes of 290 to 420 metres, planted to a mix of mineral rich marine sands and igneous rock, glacial sediments and pebbled clays. Grapes are all hand picked and sorted over a conveyer belt, destemmed and gently pressed into traditional, open top oak fermentation vats. Eighteen days of wild indigenous yeast vinifications are treated to regular punch downs and cap turnovers, followed by a post ferment maceration of ten months on gross sedimentery lees. Upon completion, batches are gravity filled to a mix of oak barriques and larger format fifteen hectolitres oak casks for a further twenty two months maturation.
