La Miraja “Ruchè Di Castagnole Monferrato” Piedmont, Italy 2022

FROM THE PIEDMONT GUY

THE WINE: Castagnole Monferrato holds the honor of being the birthplace of Ruché. This grape is a unique red variety found primarily in the rolling hills northwest of the town of Asti, where only seven villages hold the distinction of producing wines under the DOCG. Closest to Castagnole Monferrato, silt and loam soils rich in calcium carbonate are predominant. These soils produce wines of breathtaking fragrance and fine structure. Farther to the southeast, the soils grow richer in clay and adopt a reddish hue. In the 1960s, the parish priest of Castagnole Monferrato, Don Giacomo Cauda, fell in love with Ruché and devoted his life’s work to rescuing it from extinction. Father Cauda pushed his parishioners to produce single-varietal Ruché, thereby ushering in the rebirth of this ancient vine. Ampelographers have discovered that Ruché is, in fact, the genetic offspring of the red grape Croatina and the now extinct white grape Malvasia Aromatica di Parma, also known as Malvasia Odorosissima and often compared to Moscato Bianco. Croatina yields a hearty, peppery red wine produced from northeastern Piedmont through southern Lombardy to northern Emilia Romagna. When crossed with Malvasia Aromatica di Parma, the resultant Ruché sports a wild nose redolent of violet, rose, iris, jasmine, cardamom, white pepper, and perhaps most surprisingly for a red wine, lychee.

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.