Il Sasso "Valpolicella Classico" Veneto, Italy 2023

FROM PORTOVINO:

THE WINE: A blend of Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella. "It’s hand-harvested and collected in small crates to avoid any pre-crushing and fermentation. We pick the younger vineyards and then pick early those vines more exposed to the sun. We do not control the fermentation with sulphites or enhancers. We start with a pied de cuvee and the natural yeasts in our grapes do the rest. This is a coferment of all the varieties, with a little more Rondinella for freshness. This wine is our first fermentation of the year, with grapes that have moderate quantities of sugar, partial destemming and light crushing. Fermentation proceeds to complete dry and then we quickly separate the must. We then proceed to a quick soft pressing – part of the freshness you’ll find here. The wine is then fined in steel tanks during the winter and then bottled in spring. No filtration, no blends, no chemicals, only minimum sulphites added."

THE PRODUCER: From Verona, walk up Negrar’s valley until you reach a ‘ Rock’ of Limestone – this is Il Sasso (sasso is ‘rock’ in Italian). It’s here that the grape varieties Corvina, Corvinone, and Rondinella grow deep into the terraced limestone in search of water. Soon enough, the interaction of roots, water and limestone¹ soils will bring a palpable tension to the bottled wines. And, as we’ll see below, Il Sasso’s young owner Stefano Bellamoli focuses on preserving this tension. He tracks and knows the terracing here (soil, sun exposition, water retention, grape variety) like the back of his hand, because he has it in his notebook; he eschews wood (and its spice) in favour of unlined cement diamonds and ceramic eggs. All of this is done with the backdrop of an exacting viticulture that also happens to be certified organic. This is Valpolicella for minimalists.