Claudio Vio "Riviera Ligure di Pontente" Pigato, Liguria, Italy 2024

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THE WINE: 100% Pigato. Pigato grows throughout Liguria, but the best is in the “zona dell’ albenganese”, or the region around and above the coastal town of Albenga. The name “Pigato” comes from a dialect word meaning freckled and refers to the spotted appearance of the grape skins. It’s here, in the tiny village of Vendone, 12 kilometers inland and 300 meters above the sea, that Ettore and Natalina Vio planted vines and olive trees amidst the mountain scrub in the 1970s. Their son Claudio and his wife, Maria Grazia, now tend the family farm.

After manual harvest, the bunches are destemmed and crushed, and the must is left to macerate with the skins for about 18 hours. Fermentation with native yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks (18-20°C) lasts about 25 days. After fermentation, the wine spends 1-2 months on the lees without stirring, a total of six months in stainless steel, and a minimum of two months in bottle before release. Total production is about 750 cases per year. In our experience, this is a Pigato that benefits from extra time in bottle. It’s often pretty wound up when it’s released and gets more expressive with bottle age. In good vintages, it also continues to age in compelling ways for at least several years. We’ve drunk five year old bottles that were spectacular.

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