balance of petal and earth, slice of mandarin
Grapes: Malvasia, Trebbiano, Ortrugo, Sauvignon, Marsanne
Region: Emilia-Romagne, IT
Method: Pet-Nat/Ancestrale
Body Profile: Light/Medium
Sweetness Profile: Dry/Off Dry
Croci is a small estate in the westernmost winegrowing sub-zone of Emilia-Romagna, the Colli Piacentini. Massimiliano Croci is the current generation of vignaiolo running what started as his grandfather’s property in 1935. His focus is the traditional wine of the area: white and red sparkling wines re-fermented in the bottle. Currently 8.5 of the total of 16 hectares are planted to vine, and the rest of the acreage support Croci’s dairy cows and the feed grain, hay and pasture for the animals. In fact, milk was the main production of the farm until 1970.
Campedello is the name of the hillside site whose grapes go into this wine. The co-planted vines are planted on sandy limestone soils rich in fossilized seashell material and are farmed organically; everything is done by hand, including weeding and harvest. The fruit is destemmed and left to ferment spontaneously in vat, with about 2 weeks of maceration with the skins before pressing. The wine rests in concrete vat through the winter, undergoing partial malolactic fermentation, and is bottled generally in March with about 15 grams/liter of sugar and a tiny dose of sulfur. Re-fermentation begins as the spring air warms the cellar; the wine is held in bottle for a minimum of 10 months, ending almost completely dry. It is not disgorged or filtered.