The instinct with a late-harvest wine is to reach for it at the end of a meal. At Cascina Montagnola, proprietor Donatella Giannotti would rather you started there. Sornione is harvested three weeks past physiological ripeness on limestone and clay slopes nestled between the Oltrepò Pavese and the Ligurian Apennines — long enough on the vine to develop concentration, but pressed gently and cold-macerated before fermentation and eight months of aging in new barriques. The result is a wine that sits somewhere between aperitif and indulgence — rich enough for aged cheese and paté, lively enough to set the tone for an evening rather than close it. Made only in optimal vintages, in quantities that make it genuinely rare. This is the kind of bottle you open to mark an occasion without knowing quite what category it belongs to, and enjoy all the more for it.