During a tasting, we like to talk about the shape of the land, and about the people who work it every day so that the bottle can reach your table. Because wine is culture.
My name is Andrea Cairoli. I'm a sommelier, and I look after everything that has to do with wine here at Hotel Galli.
When I tell people what I do for a living, most of them picture someone who pours and tastes. But a good sommelier's work starts long before that: it starts with reading the person in front of you. Rather like reading a label before you uncork the bottle.
I've met wine lovers of every kind over the years — and so does Max, our sommelier in the dining room at Ristorante Il Cenacolo, almost every evening. There are the curious ones, keen to try something local, and there are the seasoned drinkers who know every vintage by heart and are looking for a deeper kind of attention.
That's precisely why we work the way we do at Hotel Galli: whatever you know about wine when you sit down, we want you to leave with something.
People who join a tasting often expect to try a few labels and leave it at that. What I have in mind — the result of long conversations and just as many bottles opened with Luca Galli — is a journey that takes you right into a place.
Valtellina above all, of course, but also the great Italian and French estates, and the small treasures scattered around the world that deserve to be found.
During a tasting, we like to talk about the shape of the land, and about the people who work it every day so that the bottle can reach your table. Because wine is culture.
And here at Hotel Galli we have a particular way of thinking about hospitality: you arrive as a guest and leave as a friend. To my mind, there's no better place for that to happen than over a glass of wine.
Which is why Luca and I have put together five tasting experiences, designed to answer every kind of curiosity — and cover every wine region — we've come across over the years.
Let me take you through them, so you can choose yours.
How our cellar tastings work
A few practical details first, then on to the good part:
- every tasting is for a minimum of 2 people and is led by me, by Luca Galli, or by one of our sommeliers — Max at Ristorante Il Cenacolo, or Domenico at Ristorante La Pòsa;
- prices are per person;
- each experience lasts around 90 minutes to 2 hours and includes a board of cured meats and cheeses from TAST (Tradizione Alpina Senza Tempo), the project that safeguards and promotes the traditional produce of the Livigno valley;
- tastings can be reserved at reception or selected when you choose your accomodation. Timings can be arranged when you book.
Discovering Valtellina — €30
For anyone taking their first steps into Valtellina wine
This is the one I recommend to guests who tell me tastings are for connoisseurs. My answer is always the same: to understand wine, you only need to want to. Wine speaks to everyone — aromas and flavours belong to every nose and every palate.
Four glasses, arranged like a staircase. You begin with the freshness of a sparkling wine or an Alpi Retiche white, move on to Rosso di Valtellina, climb to Valtellina Superiore, and arrive at Sforzato — the most powerful and structured wine this valley produces, one to sip slowly and think about.
By the end you'll have tasted the entire winemaking identity of a region, without anyone having given you a lecture.
The tasting includes:
- 1 sparkling wine or 1 Alpi Retiche IGT white
- 1 Rosso di Valtellina DOC
- 1 Valtellina Superiore DOCG
- 1 Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG
Valtellina in full — €40
For those who've already had a taste and want the whole picture
If you've drunk a glass or two of Valtellina and found yourself wondering how far this region can go, this is your experience. Five wines rather than four, and a different ending: it closes, unexpectedly, with a Valtellina passito.
After the weight of Sforzato, that sweetness brings everything back into balance.
The tasting includes:
- 1 sparkling wine or 1 Alpi Retiche IGT white
- 1 Rosso di Valtellina DOC
- 1 Valtellina Superiore DOCG
- 1 Sforzato di Valtellina DOCG
- 1 Alpi Retiche IGT Valtellina passito
Italy's great wines — €50
For those who like to cross borders
We're in Livigno, high in the Alps — which is no reason not to explore further afield.
This experience brings four wines from different corners of Italy into the cellar: a sparkling, a white and two reds from contrasting regions, chosen to take you travelling without leaving the table. The richness of Italian winemaking is worth exploring in full, and it's something we do rather well here.
It's also the tasting we enjoy most, because it's never quite the same twice. The selection shifts with what's available, which gives us the chance to pour you something we love — a bottle we've only just discovered, or perhaps Luca's own favourite. Consider it an introduction to our taste.
The tasting includes:
- 1 Italian sparkling wine
- 1 Italian white wine
- 2 Italian red wines from different regions
Valtellina for connoisseurs — €60
For those who want to go deep
This one is for guests who already know Alpine Nebbiolo well and want to get properly inside it. There are two ways to do it.
A vertical: the same label across different vintages. You taste how one wine changes over the years — what time has done to it, and what each season left behind.
A horizontal: the same vintage, different producers or subzones. This is where you understand how much depends on the hand that makes the wine, and on the exact spot on the slope where the grapes grew.
The tasting includes:
- 4 selected Valtellina wines, DOC and DOCG
- a guided vertical or horizontal tasting
- an in-depth look at vintages, producers, subzones and wine characteristics
Tailor-made tastings
For those who arrive with something specific in mind
It happens now and then, and I'm always glad when it does: a guest wants to explore a single grape variety or producer, or to give someone close to them an experience made to measure. Our cellar gives us room to roam — a vertical of a great Valtellina red, a run of French champagnes, a journey through Franciacorta sparkling wines.
If you're after a tasting of your own design, simply tell us what you enjoy and how far you'd like to go. We'll take care of the rest. The price depends on the wines selected.
Reserving your wine tasting at Hotel Galli
Now it's over to you, then we sit down, open the first bottle, and see where it takes us.
From guest to friend, never more so than over a good glass of wine.
Offerte
