Mirco Mariotti "Sèt e Mèz" Fortana dell'Emilia Rosato, Emilia-Romagna, Italy NV

FROM PORTOVINO

THE WINE: Frizzante pressure, vinified bone dry. Tart red cherry, sea salt, high hats riffs of bitter quinine.

Combine the raw material, along with a local tradition of making frizzante metodo ancestrale wines, and you got yourself something fun but also deeply part of the land and terroir. Unfiltered. The locals often give the lees a shake before drinking.

THE PRODUCER: As owner Mirco likes to say “Beach vines! Beach wines!” The unique Bosco Eliceo has vines growing on the beach, and a long tradition of making frizzante metodo ancestrale wines with extremely old vines, some reaching more than 100 years old.

I first met Mirco Mariotti over ten years ago in the castle-and-moat city of Ferrara, where I was then living. The city is located in the eastern, Romagna, part of Emilia-Romagna; an area much less well-known than Emilian part. The part of Romagna where Mariotti is from is a laid back beach area, where locals eat grilled flat-bread sandwiches called piadina romagnola, slosh back the frothy frizzante, and play some beach tennis and local card games. In fact, Mariotti’s wines are named after local card games. Sèt e Mèz is kinda like Blackjack, and the name of his sparkling light rosso made from the rare red variety called Fortana. It’s savoury wild thing with high acid and a black cherry or wild strawberry notes depending on vintage; it also has a bitter vermouth-like spice to it. I find it similar to the Lambrusco di Sorbara, with a less refined acidity but a more a savory complexity. Smarazen is a form of Rummy card game, and also his frizzante white made from Trebbiano Romagnolo. It’s just oxidized, with some savoury notes and old vine character.

His vines are in Fortana’s cru growing area of Bosco Eliceo, just 300 meters from the Adriatic sea. Since the vines are grown in sand, they are non-grafted and on their own native rootstock (It. piede franco). What’s more, he uses the process of propaggine, or Layering (of shoots), in a process where the instead of planting new vines, shoots are bent do underneath the soil and come out to form a new vine. What results is a gnarly web of vines over 100 years old that all all interconnected, drawing on an aquifer two meters deep.

These are wines with loads of character, with a decisive salty and savoury married to unripe fruit. If that’s your style, kick off the sandals, light up the grill, and deal the cards. This is the read deal framer fizz.