Ampeleia Alicante 2019

Elisabetta Foradori is a pillar of the natural wine world. She was one of the first winemakers in Italy to champion hyper-intensive, chemical-free winemaking and viticulture. She was an early pioneer of the use of clay amphoras for fermenting and aging wine, an ancient technique used in the Mediterranean since pre-Roman times. She championed wild yeast fermentation, preferring to let nature take its course and let wines find their own way. 

Elisabetta's own winery is far north in the region of Alto-Adige, but her most recent project is in Tuscany, on the coast. She started a new project at Ampelaia, where winemaker Marco Tait and the Ampelaia crew oversee a diverse organic farm with grapes, animals, wheat, and olives. The Grenache planted here harkens back to the story told in our July release, of the Aragón empire of northern Spain, and how grapes like Garnacha were brought across the sea to new places, where they were given new names. On the Tuscan coast, it goes by the name of Alicante. Now you know why!

This 2019 Alicante is a study in what makes the Grenache grape great. It's grown on sandy soil vineyards in the upper Maremma area, with occasional lines of sight to the sea. If you know me, you know sand-soil Grenache has the capacity to make me emotional, because it can be that good. This one has the bouquet of a great wine: crushed ripe raspberries, strawberry cordial, sagebrush, dried rose petal, and toasted white peppercorns. It attacks the palate ripe and lush, but finishes dry, long-lasting, and complex. It's face-slamming wine, as in, once you take in the aromas, it makes your face slam backwards in surprise. It grabs your attention, nay, it demands it.

This wine is SO GOOD. I mean it. So good that we bought every bit of it we could possibly get our hands on. Once it's gone, it's gone.

Food pairings: Porchetta with salsa verde, ragù al cinghiale, pizza!