La Miraja “Alterego” Viognier, Piedmont, Italy 2022

FROM THE PIEDMONT GUY

THE WINE: Estate fruit from a vineyard situated 250 meters above sea level. Favorable eastern exposure spares the grapes from harsh afternoon sun, thereby ensuring great acidity. Calcareous-clay soils. These vines were planted to Viognier in 2019 with 5,000 vines per hectare trained in the guyot style. Vinification: Hand-harvested fruit is destemmed and then crushed by basket press into stainless-steel tanks, where native fermentation occurs. This Viognier does not undergo malolactic fermentation. After 3 months in tank on the fine lees, the wine rests for an additional 4 months in bottle prior to release.

THE PRODUCER: Nestled within the original castle of Castagnole Monferrato, La Miraja was constructed as an armory in the 11th century, only to be retrofitted as a cellar in the 1400s. In this armory-turnedcellar, Eugenio Gatti, a seventh-generation viticulturist, turns out Barbera, Grignolino, Freisa, and his fabled Ruché. His oldest Ruché plantings are located in the famed Majole vineyard, one of the first sites in Castagnole Monferrato where the grape was planted with the intention of producing single-varietal wines. Majole was replanted in the 1970s, and its Ruché vines rank among the oldest in the world. This has long been considered the top site of Castagnole Monferrato—the epicenter of Ruché production and the first of seven villages granted permission to produce single-varietal Ruché under the DOCG. La Miraja (pronounced “me-rye-uh”) is tiny by any measure, comprising less than 4 hectares under vine. It is here that Eugenio devotes his life’s work to producing roughly 2,500 transcendent cases of wine each year. Harnessing his years of experience working in wineries and distilleries across Italy, he imbues his wines with a haunting purity and a simple elegance.