Bruno Giacometto "Erbaluce di Caluso" Metodo Classico Brut, Piedmont, Italy 2012

FROM THE PIEDMONT GUY:

THE WINE: Erbaluce di Caluso Metodo Classico Brut DOCG is made from 100% Erbaluce grapes. The harvested bunches are placed in ventilated crates and stored for 4-5 days at 39° F, a process known as pre-cryomaceration. 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 12-24 hours. Afterward, the whole-berry grapes are pressed gently but continuously in order to achieve a cleaner must. Alcoholic fermentation occurs spontaneously in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks and lasts approximately four weeks. The wine is subsequently racked to stainless-steel tanks, where it remains in contact with the fine lees and undergoes occasional batonnage. Tartaric stabilization is effectuated through cold precipitation, after which the base wine is ready for secondary fermentation. As required by the DOCG, the wine remains in contact with the fine less for a minimum of 18 months. No alcohol, selected yeasts, or sugar is added. The bottles are then placed upside down in order to disgorge using the traditional method of freezing the bottle neck to trap the sediment. They are topped off with freshly disgorged spumante before being bottled under cork and cage at 3 g/L. The winery has been certified organic by ICEA since 2019

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.