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La Staffa Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi 2019
Origin: Le Marche, Italy
Retail: $18.95 | Sale $17.05
You can do anything with Verdicchio: dry wine, sweet wine, still wine, sparkling wine, fresh wine, wine to age. It is an amazing grape! Riccardo is less than 30 years old and already recognized internationally as the rising star of Verdicchio. He farms his small vineyards organically and produces some of the best Verdicchio wines you will find. The oldest vines were planted in 1972 and the youngest in 2010 on red clay with lots of limestone and range 300-450M Soils have a saline component important to the wine as well as a high presence of calcium carbonate typical of the area. Grapes are hand-harvested and hand-sorted and then softly pressed then fermented with indigenous yeast in both stainless steel and concrete tanks. The Verdicchio wines are fresh and pure with lots of minerality, acid, and herbs that pair very well with the citrus and stone fruit aromas and flavors. Everything here is done by hand. This wine is an expression of every single plant, exposure, and terrain at La Staffa, the final wine is a blend representing each aspect in one harmonious wine.
100% Verdicchio
Cenatiempo GranTIFEO Bianco 2019
Origin: Vini d’Ischia, Italy
Retail: $18.95 | Sale: $17.05
Cenatiempo, founded in 1945, is a very small winery located on Isola d'Ischia, about a 45 minute ferry ride out of Porto di Massa in Naples. Pasquale follows Biodynamic practices in the vineyards and the grapes are hand harvested. The wines of Cenatiempo are truly distinctive examples of their place and the grapes from which they came. This falanghina comes from sites throughout Campania at elevations ranging from 50-500 meters above sea level with diverse exposures. All grapes are hand harvested in October and macerated for 4-6 days and fermented in stainless steel tank under temperature control using indeginous yeasts, with minimal use of sulphites and minimal intervention. The falanghina is aged 2 months on the lees in concrete prior to release. Bouquet of young peach, mixed with tasty herbs, as the honeyed floral tones evolve. In the mouth, the silky textures give way to notes of ripe pear with a mineral touch, which glides effortlessly through the senses. The finish is long and energetic, as the pungent acids and spices slowly diminish.
100% Falanghina
Roccolo Grassi ‘Broia’ Soave 2017
Origin: Veneto, Italy
Retail: $19.95 | Sale: $17.95
Roccolo Grassi is a small winery located in the eastern hills of Valpolicella towards Soave, it is also the name of their Amarone vineyard. The property consists of three vineyards and vines ranging from 6-45 years old. Brother and sister, Marco and Francesca Sartoli, took over from their father in 1986 and began the process of transforming the winery and vineyards. They began to farm organically and to focus on quality rather than quantity. The resulting wines are textured and luxurious without ever being anything but balanced and fresh. The Soave is a single vineyard wine fermented 80% in barrique and 22hl barrels, 20% is fermented in stainless steel. Roccolo Grassi aims to express the limestone and alluvial soil at their fullest. Wood fermentation increases the complexity and the longevity of this wine. Sustainable agricultural practices are followed. They describe the cellar as “a passageway where grapes become wine in an amazing journey where their life encounters ours”.
100% Garganega
Occhipinti SP68 Bianco 2020
Origin: Sicilia, Italy
Retail: $34.95 | Sale: $31.45
Arianna Occhipinti has become a seminal figure for a new generation of wine lovers. Her rise to prominence has been meteoric, and rightfully so: anyone who has ever met Ari will instantly vouch for her charming personality and seemingly boundless energy. Arianna started making her own wine with just one hectare of abandoned vines in the commune of Vittoria. "SP68 is the name of the road that cuts through my original vineyard in Vittoria. The name of a road, for a wine which is a journey. That of the farmers who already three thousand years ago left from the country with the amphorae, and then the casks, and inside the fruit of their labor, fatigue, joy, even the smell of the soil, under the Iblei clear sky." The two varieties are native to Sicily--Zibibbo is more widely known as Muscat of Alexandria--and are grown on red sand soils over limestone rock, with vines averaging 15 years old on two different sites. The grapes are co-fermented and aged in concrete tanks. Bottled unfiltered. 'SP68' is a road near Arianna's Vittoria estate.
60% Zibbio | 40% Albanello
Cenatiempo GranTIFEO Rosato 2020
Origin: Vini d’Ischia, Italy
Retail: $18.95 | Sale: $17.05
Pasquale works with many grapes that are not commonly known. Biancolella, Forastera, and Per'e Pallummo (known as Piedirosso in other areas) are the main grapes, though he also works with Aglanico, Sciascinoso, and Falanghina. The Rosato comes from Isola d’Ischia and Campania with elevations ranging from 50-450 masl and diverse exposures. Vines are guyot, sapling, and spur pruned cordon trained: All grapes are hand harvested in October. And then soft pressed with short skin contact and fermented in white concrete vats under temperature control using indeginous yeasts, with minimal use of sulphites and minimal intervention. They are then aged 3 months on the lees in both tank and concrete. Deep and persistent Garnet in color. An ‘autumn is coming’ rose. Fresh raspberries, strawberries and dried cranberries. Fresh and vibrant with long mineral intensity and lingering cherry spice finish. So compelling that one bottle won’t suffice.
100% Aglianico and other indigenous varieties
Boniperti ‘RosadiSera’ Rosato 2020
Origin: Piemonte, Italy
Retail: $17.95 | Sale: $16.15
A quotation from Gilberto Boniperti's web-site: “When you don't know what to do, go out in the vineyards, there's always something to do there!” I would never have imagined that phrase, repeated so many times by my grandfather, would become one of his great teachings, and a cardinal rule of my philosophy of work and of life: dedication to my vineyards, many hours of manual labor, attention to the details of vinification and finally patiently waiting for the necessary maturation of my wines.” All of his wines were fantastic with great acidity, freshness, and beautiful textures. Fara is still, mostly, unknown but I think Gilberto can change that. He owns 3.5ha in 4 parcels. Everything is done by hand including harvesting. Alto Piemonte! This is 100% Nebbiolo, made by 'saignèe' with one day of skin contact, fermented in stainless steel and bottled in the late spring. Rosa di Sera translates to the evening rose. This wine is a perfect pairing with grilled salmon, roast chicken, and many pork dishes.
100% Nebbiolo
Occhipinti Frappato 2020
Origin: Sicilia, Italy
Retail: $49.95 | Sale: $44.95
“Il Frappato stems from a dream which I had when I was a girl to make a wine that knows the land that I work, the air I breath, and my own thoughts. It is bitter, bloody and elegant. That is Vittoria and the Iblei Mountains. It is the wine that most resembles me, brave, original and rebellious. But not only. It has peasant origins, for this it loves its roots and the past that it brings in; but, at the same time, it is able to fight to improve itself. It knows refinement without forgetting itself.”Arianna started making her own wine with just one hectare of abandoned vines in the communf Vittoria. Over the years, she has progressively expanded the estate by replanting 10 hectares of the region's indigenous Frappato and Nero D'Avola in selection massale. A few years later, she was able to start renting 50 year old Frappato and 45 year old Nero D'Avola vines, both independently bottled as single varietal/vineyard cuvées Il Frappato is grown on red sand with chalky subsoil at an altitude of 280 metres. The vines are average 40 years old. 20 days of skin maceration for 70% and 8 months for the other 30%. Aged 14 months in 25hl Slovenian oak barrels, 1 month in bottle. Unfiltered. Light in colour yet remarkable in complexity with notes of cherry, raspberry and white pepper, this wine shows the cool climate characteristics that can be found in Sicily.
100% Frappato
l’Erta di Radda Chianti Classico 2018
Origin: Toscana, Italy
Retail: $21.95 | Sale $19.76
Diego Finocchi purchased this small, 12 acre, vineyard in 2006 at age 24, before he’d even finished his final exams at winemaking school. The vines were older than he was – planted in 1967 – and were already naturally low-yielding on their poor clay and sand soils and 430 meter elevation. And they dropped further as he revitalized the vineyard by converting to 100% organic farming, certified since 2015. Both the Sangiovese as well as the Canaiolo are pressed in the traditional way. Native yeasts go to work and the average maceration takes between 25 and 30 days. The malolactic fermentation takes place partly in wood barrels and partly in steel barrels. The name of this wine is insolvably linked to the characteristics of its provenance. Actually it descends from the strong gradient of the vineyards (erta = acclivity). It has the classic chianti flavors of dried cherry and cocoa from the sangiovese grape, with hints of rosemary and sage. While there’s an earthy element in stony minerality, this wine seems to reach for the sun with its brightness.
100% Sangiovese & Canaiolo
Tasca d’Almerita ‘Lamuri’ Nero d’Avola 2018
Origin: Regaliali, Sicily
Retail: $16.95 | Sale: $15.25
For eight generations, the Tasca d’Almerita family has been devoted to Sicily, its land, its unique nature and its surprising and inimitable resources. Lamùri, or “love” in Sicilian dialect, is made entirely from hand-harvested Nero d'Avola grapes. The Tasca family credits the elegance of the final wine to the unique sandy soil and microclimate of this region. After fermentation, the wine is aged in French barriques to add extra finesse. Intense ruby-red in color, Lamùri offers lush aromas of black cherry, black fruits, vanilla, tobacco, and wild herbs. On the palate, velvety tannins and refreshing acidity make for an elegant, expressive, crowd pleasing wine.
100% Nero d’Avol