u/CurrA_291_nga

Another week another grape. This from the project of Daniele Piccinin who's working hard to champion Durella, a grape with a long history in Verona but that's recently fallen out of favour.  Once so prized as a passito style wine that it was traded as far as Norway for Bacalao. As has happened all over Europe post phylloxera, Durella suffered as mechanisation, yield, and shifting tastes drove replanting to more marketable and easier to grow varieties.

This is Daniele's entry level, 50% Durella aged in old barrels, 50% tank fermented Chardonnay that spends a short time on skins. 

Durella provides the richness, Chardonnay the architecture. Dried apple and yellow peahces. Subtly aromatic, woodsy herbs and white flowers there too. It feels golden and a little white rhone-adjacent but with some edginess and good amount of lift. 

Does any country do textural whites better than Italy? This is just another example of how the incredible viticultural diversity there brings never ending interesting drinking! For Cour-Cheverney lovers, drinkers of the Saint-Verain, and anyone who has Alsace whites in strong rotation.

Continuing the slow exploration of some of the more far flung corners of the wine world. There’s about 1000ha of Rufete left in Spain and the trend is definitely downward. This is only my second ever experience with the grape after trying a few releases from a local winemaker who travels over to Spain to make wine from a tiny rocky vineyard in the Sierra de Franca. 

Renvivas is from a 0.5ha old vineyard planted with Rufete (and some Rufete Blanco!). 650m up in the middle of a Chestnut forest, no chemicals ever used in the vineyard. Only 850 bottles made.

Such a supple and glorious thing to drink. Spice and scrub on the nose, some brambly fruit and a really rocky edge to it too. Quite generous, drinks in widescreen at first but lifted and breathy on the finish. Black fruit, pretty restrained, tannin is like super fine sand sifted into all corners of the palate. Drinks almost in that alpine pocket but you can definitely feel the sun too. Feels adjacent to that Gamaret/Mondeuse/Petite Rouge world but with a touch more brightness. From such a limited experience Rufete is already jumping up towards my favourite few things to drink, there’s so much pressure in the wine world to abandon these small projects in hard to reach and hard to grow places but here’s hoping the next generation keeps these traditions alive! Drink some if you find it