Croci Tenuta Vitivinicola "Lubigo" Vino Bianco Frizzante, Emilia-Romagna, Italy NV

FROM LOUIS/DRESSNER:

THE WINE: 100% Ortrugo. 15 day maceration in concrete tanks. Bottled with 12-16 grams of remaining sugar. Natural refermentation in bottle. Not disgorged.

THE PRODUCER: Massimiliano Croci's focus is primarily on the traditional, bottle refermented wines of his area, representing 80 to 90% of his production in a normal year. Set atop a picturesque hill, his poly-cultural farm has cows, grain for the animals, pastures for grazing and of course vines. The whole estate represents 16 hectares, with 8.5 dedicated to viticulture. Massimiliano took over the vineyards and winemaking in 1999, where he quickly dropped the charmat method eventually adopted by his father. He took inspiration from his grandfather’s wines from the 1930’s, which would always be bottled with sugars so they could referment in bottle. Filtration was dropped as well: “Without filtration and charmat, you taste the land. With it the wines could be from anywhere.” Distinct terroir is also at play here. The Croci vines are planted on a formation of fossilized seabed, sandy and full of limestone fossils. This is the chief reason, we feel, the wines are so distinctive in their minerality, structure and fruit, distinguishing themselves from nearby La Stoppa and Denavolo. The other aspect that makes us appreciate the wines is Massimiliano’s commitment to tradition and hard work. Their 8.5 hectares of vineyards are worked with short pruning, only manual weeding and minimally treated with bordeaux mix; the grapes are hand-harvested and all the wines are naturally fermented first as wines and then naturally refermented in bottle as frizzante wines. Massi believes he is continuing the tradition of winemaking begun by his family in the 30's. We think he has found an even better sense of the wines and the vineyards. A refreshing and pure expression.