LA PASQUA features a selection that is sure to impress over Easter. These pure, vibrant wines are just the thing for the festive table.
QUARTICELLO
Despina 2023
Emilia-Romagna, Italy
A wonderfully fresh, cloudy sparkling wine made with the pretty, perfumed local variety, Malvasia di Candia. Initially fermented in vat, the wine is transferred to bottle with a little must for the second fermentation. The gentle bubbles carry pure, vibrant flavours of grapefruit zest before a clean, salty finish. The perfect wine for celebrating the arrival of La Primavera.
Malvasia di Candia
MONTEFORCHE
Carantina 2024
Veneto, Italy
Garganega from vines up to thirty years old, planted over the region’s volcanic soils. This was fermented on the skins for just a day, before being pressed to concrete vats for nine months. This cooler vintage has produced a pale, delicate wine with gentle notes of stone fruits, smoke and minerals.
Garganega
LA GRAPPERIE
Premières Tries 2023
Loire, France
This new cuvée comes from the first pick of each of Renaud’s parcels of Chenin Blanc and therefore includes vines both young and old. The grapes were pressed directly and moved to old barrels for fifteen months of élevage, and here a cooler vintage has rendered a pale, delicate and nuanced expression of the grape that is incredibly compelling in its youth.
Chenin Blanc
PODERE SANTA MARIA
Toscana Rosato 2024
Tuscany, Italy
This rosato comes from some fine pedigree, it being an early harvest of Sangiovese from Marino’s Brunello vineyards in Montalcino. The grapes were pressed directly to vats for almost a year of ageing, rendering a crisp, complex wine of gorgeous colour that offers refreshing notes of sour red cherry, herbs and spice.
Sangiovese
LES ÂNES AILÉS
Pierrot 2024
Roussillon, France
Grenache and a touch of Carignan from a friend’s vineyards planted over clay and limestone in Calce. Two thirds of the grapes were destemmed, whilst the remainder were kept at whole bunches, and after a week of maceration, the grapes were pressed off to vats until spring. Light, bright and crunchy, the red fruits are seasoned gently with woody herbs and warming spice, making for an easygoing wine full of southern charm.
Grenache
OLEK BONDONIO
Barbera d’Alba 2024
Piedmont, Italy
Barbera from vines up to eighty years old in Altavilla, high in the hills above Alba. It spent a fortnight on skins before being pressed off to botti for a year of rest. From a cool, classic vintage, this is Barbera of rare finesse – offering layers of luminous, brambly fruit and the kind of cleansing acidity that makes it the perfect foil to Piedmont’s deeply savoury dishes.
Barbera