Earlier this month, we kicked off wine fair season with Stefano Belli’s Vino Indipendente in Calvisano, a small, rather nondescript town south of Brescia, but where, for one day in mid-January, it becomes a hub for natural wine lovers, gathering to taste the wines of the 65 exhibitors and catch up after the holidays.
CASTELLO DI STEFANAGO (Oltrepo Pavese, Lombardy) “Amico Frizz” vino frizzante L924.
This was the first wine I tried upon arriving at the fair and it was exactly what I needed: fresh, spritely, pleasantly aromatic. Castello di Stefanago is a family-run winery in the Oltrepo Pavese, where they make a wide range of still and sparkling wines, with minimal intervention, of course. “Amico Frizz” is a blend of riesling and chardonnay, refermented in the bottle (col fondo style), and it evoked stone fruits and delicate wild herbs, all stitched together by the chardonnay. Full of energy, yet easy drinking.
ZIDARICH (Carso, Friuli) “Vitovska” 2023
One of the busiest tables at the fair, Jakob (founder Benjamin’s son) was just-about holding his own. Located in the Carso region (in Italy, but on the border with Slovenia) where the rock is particularly unique (layers of red (iron-rich) clay and limestone.) I haven’t ever visited the winery, but I’d heard already of the enormous vault they have created by excavating the rock to create the cellar and of their line of wines (“Kamen”) vinified and matured in that same rock…
Anyway, back to the fair. Strangely perhaps, I have chosen the first wine as my “favourite” of the Zidarich line-up. Whilst the other wines are flawless and full of interest, I found myself thinking that the entry-level vitovska (well, actually, nothing the Zidarich family make is particularly entry level) is a really stunning wine. The vitovska grapes spend two weeks on the skins and 2 years in botti. High-quality for a supposedly simple wine, I loved its sense of fullness together with its linear minerality.
VILLA JOB (Fruili) “Gravita” Venezia Giulia IGT Schioppettino 2022
Staying in Friuli, but moving away from the Carso coastline and heading almost an hour inland, near Udine…
Take an under-rated grape variety like schioppettino harvested at exactly the right moment, leave it for 10 days on the skins, then 1 year in cement vats, and another year in tonneaux, and you get a utterly delicious wine. A Goldilocks level of body and weight… just right. As with all the wines from Villa Job, it’s aromatically very expressive. Together with notes of green peppercorns and spice, the tannins are present but not overbearing. “Really drinkable” I wrote.
NADIA CURTO (La Morra, Piedmont) Barolo “Arborina” 2020
Nadia took over her parents’ 4 hectares of vineyards almost 25 years ago, but this was my first time tasting her full range ; she started pouring the nebbiolo & dolcetto from young vines (“juicy!”), then the barbera (“smooth”), then the Langhe Nebbiolo (“nice, balanced”.)
I appreciated the Barolos “La Foia” both 2021 and 2013 for their classic elegance and poise but I actually found myself being more surprised by, and drawn to, the Barolo cru “Arborina” 2020, which was less traditional and more intensely coloured and aromatic. The Arborina was a concentration of cherries and rosehip on the nose and deep, dark blackcurrants in the mouth. Really intense.
FORADORI (Trentino) “Morei” 1986 Teroldego
A special feature of the Vino Indipendente wine fair (and I might steal the idea for VinNatur, if Stefano Belli gives me a thumbs up *wink*) is the idea that at 2pm, all the exhibitors open an old vintage from their archives. Now, some exhibitors obviously don’t have a huge back catalogue (on some tables, there was a 2020…), but it just so happened that by a stroke of good fortune, I found myself in front of the Foradori table at exactly 13.55 as Myrtha was pulling out a magnum of 1986! Wow!
There’s just one problem with this idea: wine fairs are not the right environment to drink such exceptional wines. Initially, the Morei was closed and aromatically quite limited. I stepped aside to one corner to see if it would open up and evolve, and I was rewarded with leather, date, allspice, fine tannins… it was long, yet ethereally beautiful; I just wish I had had more time with it!
If ever you get the chance, or if fate provides the opportunity, to get your hands on a bottle or – better still – a magnum of 1986 teroldego, don’t think twice!
Final mention to goes to the winery FRA I MONTI in southern Lazio for the “Free Gaza; Free Palestine” stickers on all their bottles. It was the first time I tasted their range – and I really liked it – so I bought a few bottles to try at home in my own time.
Leave a comment