Ciao Tutti!
This weekend at Piazza Italian Market, we will taste a Rose’, the Bricco Lorella Vino Rosato ($23.50, 13 % ABV) from the Antoniolo Societa Agricola in Gattinara, Alta Piemonte. Gattinara is Alto Piemonte’s most well known and most important appellation and is hidden at the base of the Italian Alps.
Mario Antoniolo founded the winery in 1948. In the 1950’s and 60’s, many Italians began to give up farming and sought work in factories in nearby Torino and other cities in Piemonte. Mario stayed and began quietly buying up the area’s best vineyards. Ten years later his strategy paid off and the Antoniolo family own many of Gattinara’s best vineyards.
When Mario’s daughter Rossana became the manager of the winery, she wisely took the advice of Luigi Veronelli to bottle two of their wines, the Osso San Grato and San Francesco wines as single vineyard wines. Today, Osso San Grato is considered to be one of the world’s great wines, according to Antonio Galloni of Vinous. Although some winemakers in the Langhe area of Piemonte were also creating single vineyard wines, this action was unheard of at that time in Gattinara.
Today, the third generation of Lorella and her brother Alberto manage 14 hectares of vines and adhere to their mother Rossana’s strict guidelines-integrated pest management, low doses of copper and sulfur, no chemical fertilizers, rows between the vines with natural cover crops, and slow fermentation in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts. All of Antoniolo’s Gattinaras are aged the same length of time as their Riservas.
The Bricco Lorella Vino Rosato 2024 is 100% Nebbiolo, medium body with red currants and wild strawberry on the nose, light citrus notes, flavors of tart raspberry and cranberry; good acidity and a dry, crisp finish-easy to enjoy!
Come join me for a taste of this delicious Rosato on Friday from noon to 5:45 or Saturday from noon to 4:45.
Cin Cin!
Jenn
Piazza Italian Market is located at 218 N. Washington St., suite 23, in Easton, MD.
