Davide Spillare: Rosso Giaroni 2020

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 natural conditions prevailing in Gambellara or to the biotype of the grape variety that has developed there over centuries, but we simply assume that both factors play a role and that Davide's approach in the vineyard and in the cellar is responsible for the rest. 

In the vineyard, Davide is resolutely committed to manual labour, biodynamic cultivation and consequently well nourished and revitalised soils, targeted foliage work and selective harvesting, and in the cellar to slow, careful and virtually intervention-free ageing (every winemaker constantly intervenes, be it with the maceration time, the fermentation temperature, the choice of container, the duration of ageing...). He ferments his Merlot spontaneously in open wooden vats and then ages it for a good year in 500-litre barrels. He does not use any additives, does not add or remove anything, does not filter, polish or sulphurise and ultimately manages to breathe individuality and character into the commonplace Merlot variety.