Vasche, to which Luca Virgilio's Montepulciano pays tribute, are ancient basins that were carved into the rocks around Pietranico thousands of years ago to crush grapes with feet. Although Luca does not do this, he is aware of the long history of viticulture around his winery, which was complete...
High up in the north, where Piedmont is slowly knocking on Switzerland's door, is Bramaterra, an ancient wine enclave where viticulture has been documented for many hundreds of years. Before Bramaterra was declared a DOC in 1979, the region's wine was called "Vino dei Canonici", referring to the ...
Data sheet
Grape variety: Nebbiolo
Plant protection: only sulphur, copper and plant or animal-based preparations, not certified
Vineyard: single vineyard site Cavazucchi. Soil with a high iron and manganese content, covered by a layer of marine sand
Harvest: by hand
Fermentation: spontaneous |...
With just 18 hectares of vineyards, Lessona is the smallest of the three DOC zones in which the Colomberas own vineyards. Despite its microscopic dimensions, Lessona has a few special features that set it apart from the other two regions. Firstly, there is the climate, which in some exposures tak...
A few decades ago, Coste della Sesia still had a few hundred hectares of vines, but today there are a whole thirty. The reason for this was not the quality of the wines, which have been repeatedly praised in the annals of local viticulture since the 14th century, but the general rural exodus that...
Giacomo Colombera and Cristiano Garella's latest project, Vespolina, puts the spotlight on a grape variety that usually plays a leading but only minor role in the Nebbiolo cuvées of Piedmont's north. This time, however, it has all the attention and knows how to make the most of it - and that is ...
Teran is one of those grape varieties that you should think in the local context and with the culinary tradition of Istria: with Prosciutto and Goulash, Jota (the stew) and Musetto (the cooking sausage), with the Osmiza (this year), the bora (the wind ) and winter in the karst. In itself, Teran ...
The ČRNA is a foam wine made of teran, which is produced according to the mèthode, and an authentic representation of the properties inherent in it. So there is no shortage of acidity and tannin, nor. Even if Father & Son Čotar orientate themselves from the champagne when it comes to the wine gro...
data sheet
Grape variety: Teran
Vineyard: Terra Rossa
reading: By hand
Fermentation: spontaneous | Wild yeast, 15 days of mash fermentation
expansion: 7 years in 1500 liters of wooden barrels, 48 months in the bottle
Filtration: no
SO₂: 19 mg/l
Alcohol content: 12 % vol
Closure: Nat...
Croatina is a Piedmontese-Lombardy grape variety that can basically provide the basis for excellent red wines and should be recommended to every wine drinker. The only problem is that you often don't know whether Croatina is really inside where it says Croatina on the label (Daniele Ricci's El Ma...
Elso is a wine close to Daniele Ricci's heart. It is dedicated to Ulisse, his maternal grandfather. According to Daniele, Ulisse, who everyone called Elso, was a grandmaster in the vinification of Croatina and showed the then young winemaker how to deal with the notoriously complicated vine, whic...
Merlot. Purely varietal, too. We understand that there are people who simply click on to the next wine. And we don't want to be missionaries and take up the cudgels in favour of Merlot, it's just that Davide Spillare makes a truly fantastic wine from it. We do not know whether this is due to the ...
Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc have long been at home in the Colli Euganei. They were introduced to the volcanic hills south-west of Padua either by Italian day labourers who helped out with the grape harvest in Bordeaux for little money back in the 19th century, or - the stories vary in t...
Eugenio Bocchino's focus is on Nebbiolo. However, he also cultivates an excellent Barbera, which he vinifies with the same meticulous craftsmanship and attention to detail.
Barbera has all the attributes to make exceptional wines - even if there are countless examples to disprove this. Its defi...
The Lu, short for Lucia, Cinzia and Eugenio's daughter, is a selection of late harvested grapes from the two vineyards La Serra and Fossati. The two sites are adjacent to each other and have similar characteristics (sandy-clay soils, high altitude, cool and well ventilated), although the soil com...