Grape blend: 100% Pinot Nero
Aged: 48 months in Barriques
Alcohol content: 15% vol
Acidity: 5.12 g/l
Residual sugars: 0.5 g/l
On the Fattoria’s most beautiful “plateau”, at 380 m a.s.l., grows the Pinot Nero – a grape variety traditionally grown in northern Italy, but now also at home at La Vialla – from which we obtain this wonderfully coloured and intense Viallino super-red, a real champion when it comes to ageing in our cellar. With its cool, rainy spring and a summer that was less hot than usual, the 2018 season favoured the perfect combination of technological ripeness (the accumulation of sugars) and phenolic ripeness (the development of tannins). The grapes – beautiful and full of juice – were harvested at two different times: first in the vineyard on flat ground, later on the hillsides. Alcoholic fermentation, which lasted for 22 days, also occurred separately for the two grape musts; they were then combined and underwent malolactic fermentation in barriques, some of which were new while others had already been used once or twice to avoid the risk of an overly intrusive aroma of vanilla. After ageing in the barriques for 48 months, the base wines were “assembled” in concrete vats, where the wine was left for a while to favour the blend.
Tasting – Colour: an intense shade of red that, as the wine ages in the bottle, tends towards purple and then garnet. The nose: notes of sweet spices and ripe dark and red fruits (blueberry, blackberry and blackcurrant), hints of empty cigar box. In the mouth: silky and suave, long aromatic persistence and tannic softness.
Wine and Food Pairing – This is an important wine that therefore likes to “meditate” alone... or with dishes worthy of it: pappardelle with meat ragu, King Porsenna’s pork fillet (stuffed with prunes), pan-cooked rabbit, or mature cheeses such as a pecorino Gran Riserva.
Awards – Gold Medal and Special Mention Coup de Coeur for the 2018 vintage at the Concours Mondial des Féminalise 2024, Beaune, France – 97/100 points for the 2017 vintage at the Wine System International Wine Award 2023, Frasdorf, Germany.