December 2024 - Piedmont, Italy

December 2024

Italy

Piedmont

Featuring:

Corte San Pietro 

We first covered Piedmont in May 2022. That writeup includes a good history of the area and overview of the regional grapes and styles.

This month, our focus is on a sole winery - Corte San Pietro - located in the Nizza DOCG area within Piedmont. Their vineyard is just outside of the town of Moasca, located in the hills directly south of the city of Asti. This small family winery is currently helmed by third generation winemaker Fabio Ghidella. Fabio's grandfather, Annibale, founded the winery as a young man, planting vineyards by hand and making the wines himself. When he retired, his son, Luigi, had already taken up a career in medicine, leaving young Fabio (Luigi’s son) to take up the family tradition. Fabio took on this role proudly, embracing the agricultural tradition and taking the winery to a new, modern direction.

Today, Corte San Pietro remains a small producer - they farm 12 acres but only make 700 or so cases of wine. This translates into incredibly low yields of less than 1 ton per acre (in OR, we often see 2-3 tons / acre). This small production is split amongst just three wines, a sparkling, a rosato, and a red. Fabio tends to the vineyards the same way his grandfather did - organically, but not because of some trend or effort to undo bad practices. Rather, he farms without the use of chemical treatments or synthetic fertilizers simply because that is how they have always done so, from long before his grandfather’s time to present day. Winemaking follows the same ethos; certain elements of modernity are embraced (stainless steel tanks, light filtration, and judicious sulfur use). However, they eschew any additions or subtractions, new oak, or heavy mechanization in the winery. Wines are made using carefully-tended grapes, thoughtful manipulations, and time.

As a whole, Corte San Pietro represents a simple and humble winery showcasing a side of exports we rarely get to see. This is the kind of wine you find in a wine shop or restaurant in the village you’re staying in, and fall in love with, wishing you could take a whole suitcase of their wine home with you.

Corte San Pietro, ‘Sei Bollissima’ Spumante Brut, Piedmont NV

This lovely sparkling wine is a blend of organically grown, hand picked Barbera and Cortese. The grapes are gently crushed and cold macerated for a few hours to extract phenols, then they are pressed and fermented as juice. After an initial fermentation, it is transferred to a pressurized tank where it undergoes a secondary fermentation (Charmat Method) that allows it to become carbonated.

The finished wine is a generously-fruited sparkling with notes of apple, pear, citrus and light floral scents. It is more of an aperitif wine, and the small amount of residual sugar would pair well with rich foods like charcuterie or spicy food.

The name, Sei Bollissima, is a play on the phrase ‘Sei Bellissima’ - meaning ‘you’re beautiful’ and Italian word ‘Bol’ - meaning ‘bubbles’. 

Corte San Pietro, ‘Il Ritorno’ Barbera d’Asti, Piedmont 2019

‘Il Ritorno’ translates to ‘the return’, referring to Fabio’s return to the family business after his father chose a different career. This wine is 100% Barbera from the Moasca village in the Nizza DOCG. However, to label the wine as Nizza, it must be aged in barrel for a minimum of 6 months (18 months total age) and Fabio chooses to eschew barrels totally. Therefore, he has to label it as the wider Barbera d’Asti DOCG, which has less strict aging requirements.

After picking, the wine is crushed and fermented on the skins for 3 weeks before it is transferred to a fresh steel tank to age for nearly a year. It is given a light filtration and bottled just before harvest of the following year. The wine is usually rested in bottles for a couple years before release to distributors.

This Barbera is dense and juicy, with blackberry, star anise, and a touch of damp earth. Even with the ripe fruit, it has bright acid and a long finish. This is great cozy wine for winter and would be great by a fire or with some hearty stew.