If people have created a vineyard in a place so difficult that it boggles the mind and if they have continued for generations to riskily and arduously farm those vineyards by hand, for no machines have yet been created that can negotiate these extreme terrains, then can there be any doubt that the wines produced have merit? Just a few kilometers from the Swiss border, the vertiginous, terraced vineyards of Valtellina attest to the importance humans have placed on the production of excellent wine. Recent DNA analyses have shown that Nebbiolo originated in Piedmont, the home of the most famous versions of the grape, Barolo and Barbaresco, but under the name Chiavennasca, the grape has existed also in the Valtellina region of Lombardy for hundreds—some claim thousands—of years and is the only sizeable planting of Nebbiolo outside of Piedmont. The mountains to both the north and south of this east-west valley are well over 10,000 feet, creating a rain and cloud barrier resulting in a microclimate as sunny as Sicily and with enough warmth to ripen the notoriously late-ripening Nebbiolo. Società Agricola Sandro Fay was founded in 1971 by Sandro Fay to begin to produce wines commercially from the grapes the family had been growing for many generations, and now his children Marco and Elena are in charge. As with all Valtellina Superiore, this wine ages for at least one year in oak, in this case large Slavonian Oak casks, a la Barolo and Barbaresco, and at least one year in bottle. Flavors of raspberry, cherry, and earth with smoother tannins than a Piedmontese version. Excellent with hard cheeses, braised meats, risotto, cold cuts, salami, rabbit, lamb or wild boar.