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. Grown on the limestone and clay slopes of Piedmont's Colli Tortonesi—nestled between the Oltrepò Pavese and the Ligurian Apennines—Sornione is harvested three weeks past physiological ripeness, long enough on the vine to develop concentration without losing its verve. Pressed gently and cold-macerated before fermentation, it then ages eight months in new French barrels. 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 at the start of an evening. Made only in optimal vintages, in quantities that make it genuinely rare.