IL NATALE offers a selection of our favourite wines for the festive table. Covering all the bases for the holidays, these layered, nuanced wines are sure to create a real sense of occasion.
ORSI SAN VITO
Pignoletto Sui Lieviti 2021
Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Pignoletto is a grape indigenous to the Colli Bolognesi. Federico harvests this from young, healthy vines planted over clay and limestone. It is fermented in vat, with a little of the must from the same harvest added to the bottle for the second fermentation. It is aged on its lees and never disgorged. A simple, yet extremely refreshing wine with texture and citrus in spades.
Pignoletto
BARRACO
Bianco G 2022
Sicily, Italy
From an isolated plot of fifty year old bush vines of Grillo handed down to Nino by his father. These are planted over red sand and terra rossa, just a kilometre from the sea. This spent twenty four hours on the skins before ten months of élevage in a combination of old casks and concrete vats. A vivid yellow, this really shows the pedigree of the site and is compact and elegant with delicate notes of minerals and brine leading to a long, salty finish.
Grillo
LÉONARD DIETRICH
Granit 2021
Alsace, France
From forty year old vines of Auxerrois and Sylvaner planted over pure granite towards the bottom of the slope in Dambach. The former was pressed directly, whilst the latter macerated for two days before the two were blended and left to rest in a single old Alsatian foudre for a year. Reflecting the vintage this is compact, delicate and nuanced, with gentle notes of citrus and an intense, stony minerality.
Auxerrois, Sylvaner
LA GRAPPERIE
Adonis 2021
Loire, France
This beautiful expression of Pineau d’Aunis comes from vines both young and old, planted over a complex blend of clay, limestone and silex. The grapes were fermented as whole bunches for a couple of weeks before being pressed off to old barrels for a year of élevage. From a cooler vintage, this is lighter, brighter and more delicately perfumed than in recent years. Compact and elegant, it is heady with pink peppercorns and wild strawberries, the fruit framed by the neatest of tannins and a cascade of minerals. This is the grape at its most immediate and compelling.
Pineau d’Aunis
CLAIRE AND FLORENT BEJON
Pain Perdu 2022
Loire, France
From a small parcel of Cabernet Franc in the village of Beaumont-en-Véron on the right bank of the Vienne. The vines here are forty years old and planted on a slope over limestone and sand. The grapes were fermented as whole bunches in cuve for three weeks, before being pressed to a combination of vats, old barrels and amphorae for a short élevage. Wonderfully plush, open and expressive, it pairs red fruits, earth and spice to beautiful effect.
Cabernet Franc
AJOLA
Rosso (Se) 2021
Umbria, Italy
Sangiovese from thirty year old vines planted over clay in Orvieto, fermented on the skins for three weeks and bottled young after a short ageing in vat. This is wonderfully open and expressive, with loose knit tannins and vibrant flavours of red cherry and herbs. Rarely is Sangiovese as joyful and charming as this.
Sangiovese