TAKE YOUR TIME ... TO taste our prestigious wines Valtellina is a mountainous and dramatic area, with grapes grown on the slopes of a transverse valley (running east-west), which means maximum light exposure: the vineyards enjoy similar sunshine hours to those in Mediterranean Sicily. Vines are almost all planted on terraces carved into the granite and slate rock. Like similar vineyard landscapes in the Douro valley, all picking is by hand, as is the heavy work of hauling grapes up and down the slopes - around three-times more man-hours are required to work these vines than the gentler slopes of Piedmont. A few growers have invested in funicular transporters, and even helicopters to aid this back-breaking work. Nebbiolo has always been the only grape variety bottled in the region's red wines, though recently some experimental plantings of Merlot and Pinot Noir are being watched with interest. Some IGT wines (Indicazione Geografica Tipica, a similar concept to France's Vin de Pays) are already produced from these blends, and white wines too - both "blush"-style white Nebbiolo and small parcels of Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.