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So you hear it bandied about: “There are thousands of native grape varieties in Italy!” That’s true, but a lot of them are merely cute. The most serious native variety Timorasso deserves another category (and it’s white to boot). It’s utterly unique, complex, capable of aging, and transparent to where it’s grown. Walter Massa is the contadino straordinario who brought the grape back to life in the early 1980s. He remains the leading producer and go-to grower for Timorasso.

For Timorasso as a variety: It’s native and unique to the Colli Tortonesi (southeast Piemonte). Before 1980s, most growers were ripping out Timorasso and planting Cortese, as the latter produces more and Gavi was all the rage, so they could sell the grapes easily. Timorasso is one of those grapes (unlike, say, Cortese) that really is delicious and refreshing to eat right off the vine, due to its high sugar content and acidity. When Timorasso is vinified, you get lots of complexity and structure (from alcohol and from tannins – skin contact and thick skins!). Yet there’s plenty of acidity to keep things fresh and a definite counterpoint of what we call ‘honeyed minerality.’ When Timorasso is young, it can be really tight. As it ages, it loses some of its baby fat, and riesling-ish, petrol-like notes emerge. As far as terroir, Walter vinifies each vineyard separately (or tries to if he has enough tanks) and bottles a small portion of three of the vineyards separately.

Native yeasts. Maceration with skins 48-60 hours. Fermentation 18-22°C. Batonnage. Light filtration. Minimum six months bottle aging before release.

Derthona is the ancient name for Tortona, the town in southeast Piemonte after which the appellation Colli Tortonesi (Tortona Hills) is named.

Organic

75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay
Both vinified in barrels separately. All grapes are hand-harvested from vines aged around 25 years old and planted on superficial clay-limestone soils. The alcoholic fermentations are made in thermo-regulated stainless steel vats and after the malolactic fermentation both wines are matured in one year in casks aged over 3 years. Then the secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle with more than three years of aging before being disgorged three months prior to sale with a dosage of 8.5 grams.

Organic / Natural / Orange

Chardonnay/Tocai Friulano. Radikon’s 750ml bottlings, known informally as the “S” line, are Sasa Radikon’s addition to his dad Stanko’s original 500ml line: they are still “orange” wines but less intensely so due to a shorter period of skin contact and aging. Otherwise, all of the wines are made identically: the Chardonnay and Sauvignon are destemmed, crushed and co-fermented with natural yeasts in oak vat, with no temperature control and no sulfur. Maceration lasts for 10-14 days (versus 2.5-3 months for the flagship wines). After a gentle pressing, the wine is put in 6000-liter Friulian-made French oak botti for a year on its lees; it is bottled with a tiny amount of sulfur and without filtration and then aged in bottle for a year before release. Slatnik is named for a nearby village.

Organic / Natural

The 2023 Fleurie Chapelle de Bois offers a refined bouquet of spice, cranberries, cherries and delicate dried rose and peony petals. On the palate, the medium-to-full-bodied wine maintains a focused and condensed profile, with supple fruit supported by a ripe acidity. A subtle-grained texture imparts the needed dimension, leading to a distinctive finish tinged with a hint of sea salt.

Needing little introduction, the Domaine de la Grand'Cour covers 11.5 hectares, with the majority located in Fleurie (9.7 hectares) and the rest in Brouilly (1.8 hectares). In recent years, Jean-Louis has taken a step back from the day-to-day operations, entrusting his children, Ophélie and Lucas, with leadership. However, upon my arrival at the domaine, I found Jean-Louis driving the tractor in the Chapelle de Bois parcel across the street, so I think it's safe to say that it's only a partial retirement. The domaine farms some of the most revered vineyards in the appellation, all meticulously tended under the Ecocert organic certification since 2009, though their commitment predates formal recognition. In the cellar, the grapes undergo a low-temperature semi-carbonic maceration and ambient yeast fermentation, followed by eight months of aging in a combination of demi-muids, barrels, foudres and tanks, with no added SO2 until bottling. The resulting wines epitomize exceptional purity and are easy to appreciate in their youth, while possessing the structural integrity to evolve gracefully over the years. In 2023, similar to 2022, the family decided to pick their fruit earlier than usual and shorten the vinification length to preserve freshness and elegance. The resulting wines boast more approachable profiles, especially when compared to the 2020 vintage, with lessened concentrations and finer tannins - The Wine Advocate

94 Jeb Dunnuck
Gorgeously pretty in a salmon hue, the MV Brut Rose is a blend of 56% Pinot Noir and 44% Chardonnay given additional complexity from 10 to 15% oak-aged wines from the estate's reserve cellars. Disgorged in May 2023. It has a dosage of 8 grams per liter and is delightfully precise in nature, fully balanced between red fruit and acidity, with a rounded mid-palate and enduring finesse to the mousse. The acidity and structure are solidly impressive

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

#1 on James Suckling's Top 100 Wines of Portugal

97 points James Suckling
Earthy with dried flowers, very complex, with red fruit and darker tones in the background. The palate is tender and refined, medium- to full-bodied, with supple, chalky tannins and a delicate yet substantial thread of dark fruit. A beautifully pure and energetic expression of baga. Sourced from three vineyards, 100 to 140 years old, planted on clay-limestone soils. The grapes are partially destemmed, fermented in open wood lagares, and aged 12 to 18 months in 500- and 1,500-liter used oak barrels. From biodynamically grown grapes, Demeter and Ecocert certified. Drink now or hold.

Organic / Natural / Orange

100% Pinot Grigio. Radikon's 750ml bottlings are Sasa Radikon's addition to his dad Stanko's original 500ml line: they are still "orange" wines but less intensely so due to a shorter period of skin contact and aging. Otherwise, all of the wines are made identically: the Pinot Grigio is destemmed and fermented with natural yeasts in oak vat, with no temperature control and no sulfur. Maceration lasts for 10-14 days (versus 3 months for the 500ml wines). After a gentle pressing, the wine is put in 3500-liter Slavonian oak barrels for a year and a half on its lees; it is bottled without filtration and with only a miniscule amount of sulfur. This Pinot Grigio bottling was dubbed "Sivi" starting in the 2016 vintage; it means "gray" in Slovenian, in reference to the grayish-pink color of the grape's skin

Organic

Capitan Fanegas is the personal project of Mario Ruiz-Clavijo from the historic Bodegas Marques de Arviza in Rioja. The philosophy behind the Capitan Fanegas wines is to make single vineyard expressions of Rioja that reflect and express the sites they come from. The wines are vinos de author; unique representations that are true to the Rioja style.

For 6 months the wine is aged over fine lees. After it was racked to remove the sediments and lees. Then the wine was aged for an extra 12 months without any racking and no sulphur added until bottling giving a total aging in concrete of 18 months. The philosophy is to age the wine with a a hands off approach to avoid oxidation, because Graciano is an easy oxidative variety. Aging in concrete tank gives the wine and extra refinement. Porosity provides a very interesting evolution to the wine like the micro oxygenation in the barrel, but without added flavor or added aromatic impact. With this process, the evolution and maturity of the fruit of the wine is enhanced and helps to maintain the purity of the Graciano character.

It?????s aromas of red and black fruits, floral and some spicy notes, are typical of the Graciano variety. Also, some hints of leather, tabaco, iron, licorice and other tertiary notes given naturally by the variety. The palate is fleshy, powerful, tasty, and spicy with a long and very elegant finish. The tannins on this wine are big but elegant. Due the hands off process we use during aging, we highly recommend decanting the wine prior tasting.