Bruno Giacometto "Canavese" Rosato, Piedmont, Italy 2022

FROM THE PIEDMONT GUY:

THE WINE: The winery produced its first Rosato in 2019 using the five red grape varities—Nebbiolo, Barbera, Neretto di Bairo, Freisa, and Merlot— planted across its estate vineyards. From this fruit, Giacometto vinifies both Spumante Metodo Classico and the still rosé detailed below. The harvested bunches are placed in ventilated crates and stored for 4-5 days at 39°F, a process known as precryomaceration. These crates enable the cold air to chill all the bunches without the occurrence of condensation. Pre-cryomaceration results in wines with a fresh fruit profile that are rounder, more balanced, and notably ageworthy. It also empowers Bruno to make minimal sulfur additions. The chilled grapes are pressed in a pneumatic tank and left in contact with the skins for 2-4 hours. Afterward, the grapes are pressed gently but continuously in order to achieve a cleaner must. Alcoholic fermentation occurs spontaneously in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks at 61-63°F. The wine is subsequently racked to stainless-steel tanks, where it remains in contact with the fine lees. Tartaric stabilization is effectuated through cold precipitation, after which the wine is bottled.

THE PRODUCER: Bruno Giacometto is the force behind a dazzling array of bottlings vinified naturally from Erbaluce, a thick-skinned, high-acid white grape variety native to northern Piedmont. Bruno’s ebullience belies his age, and he claims to have never married because Erbaluce is the one true love of his life. Erbaluce di Caluso was Piedmont’s first official white-wine appellation, formalized as a DOC in 1967 and subsequently elevated to DOCG status in 2010. The DOCG encompasses only Erbaluce grown in the zone of Caluso, “where the best Erbaluce wines in Italy are made,” according to Wine Scholar Ian D’Agata. With centuries of family ties to the historic town of Caluso and a winemaking lineage dating back to the early 1960s, Bruno feels most at home in the pergola-trained Erbaluce vineyards of his zone, though he also maintains small parcels of native red grapes like Nebbiolo, Barbera, Neretto, and Freisa. The estate of Bruno Giacometto has been certified organic by ICEA since 2019.