Naturale Dinamiche Bio @ Navelli AQ



Naturale is a wine fair in the middle of Abruzzi.
Close to the famous town of Aquila which was hit by the earthquake not long ago and Mr Berlusconi make this awesome city quite famous but apparently he didn't fix it afterwards, a shame about that.
Navelli is the name of the town where Naturale was done an old "borgo" surrounded by mountains.
The organization behind this is called Dinamiche Bio a few guys with lots of passion make this event on the map of natural wine around the world.
For me, it was the first time due to the fact I'm living overseas, I' m very glad to be present this year.
At the fair there were more than 50 growers with more than 200 wines to try; also one floor was dedicated to food and veggies was really cool the food/garden section; Abruzzo product are always tasty and not replicable and of course other specialties from Italy were excellent too.
The castle where the exhibition was done is called Palazzo Santucci and also Navelli town is popular for the "Zafferano" saffron which here they call "Red gold".
Of course I wasn't able to taste every thing but I did taste lots of new things for me.
As it was a Sunday there were lots of people all over the place.
Great harmony and passionated feeling through the visitors.
Love this feeling.





One of the first producer I really liked was Antonio Cosmi of Casale Certosa in S. Palomba in Rome.
I did love his white wine made with Grechetto and Malvasia Puntinata named Alborea quite aromatic with an interesting phenolic component and mineral structure.
antonio cosmi
Talking with the producer he told me the vines are in very good soil, friable limestone mixed with alluvial volcanic pebbles and they are quite young 10 to 15 years old. I guess this wine in 10 years will be over control for minerality and sapidity, looking forward to taste Alborea in the future.
alborea and brothers 
The other cool producer is in the Marche region in the area of Cupramontana in the provence of Ancona. La Marca di S. Michele they produce a  Verdicchio in a Mersault style ripe stone fruit with honey and creamy texture with limestone and flinty perception with a refreshing acidity to buy a case and lock in the cellar.

The producer told me he's aiming to make a pure expression of verdicchio with no influence of the barrel so he reckon in a few vintage the barrel would be used enough to not give tertiary oak character. To my point of view it's already there, quite close; I actually liked that hint of honey / vanilla taste which make me think to store in the cellar to let the wine develop.

la Marca di S. Michele
Still in the Marche region I enjoyed the Pecorino which is another native varieties of Abruzzo and Marche regions. The producer are in Ascoli Piceno a Cossignano the winery is called Fontorfio.
The pecorino was quite bright in color with an intense yeasty character along some underripe pineapple and citrus flavors. Minerality with saltiness and refreshing acidity a good deal for your everyday sauvignon blanc. 
                                                            Azienda agricola Fontorfio 
Next wine was the new super star of Abruzzo madame Cristiana Galasso from the winery Feudo D'Ugni:
She is a lovely lady working in a really minimal intervention and she has many old vines based around Trebbiano, Malvasia and Montepulciano and a very interesting surprise she makes a Gruner Veltiner from a 50 year old vines. The gruner is not so bad as my mind was thinking when she told me while she was pouring a tasting glass. "A gruner in center Italy" I said "that doesn't work", however the wine got some personality a bit close not spice as Gruner but mineral with a good acid structure. Also the trebbiano Lama Bianca it's a very good wine. I'll see if I can visit the winery soon.
From Abruzzi its always a pleasure taste the wines of Cirelli with his wines aging and fermented in Amphora a clay pot. The montepulciano was earthy and tar with farmyard with an hint of stable; the fruit blue and black tight and close. Palate very sour, tannin evidence with slate licking.
The king of Abruzzi Mr. Emidio Pepe with his pretty niece was another good tasting:
I loved the Pecorino something new for me I wasn't aware about that; I love their wines. The Pecorino got a good concentration of color quite gold with honey and pastry element on the nose along some stony steel and wet wool minerality a very good surprise. In line with their style.

Still in the Region of Abruzzi in Pescara country side i tried the Pecorino made by Palusci, without filtering and decanting in the Ovarius was a great surprise. Cloudy yeast and autolytic, creamy and cheesy. Palate medicinal, lavender with fennel and dill. A good shit to use an oxymora. I liked it.
  A stand was dedicated to an association of growers called CO.VI.BIO. which also imported some french wines into the country.
Biodinamique Growers around the country have joined together to improve their marketing size, a very cool idea. Producer I liked:
From Dicomano in Tuscany I liked the wines from Voltumna especially the Pinot Noir in a Vosne Romanee style.
Tenute Selva Dolce in the Riviera di Ponente in Liguria was a great tasting all their wines Vermentino, Pigato and Rossese di dolce d'acqua. I' m looking forward to buy some of their wines.
In the Cote de Beaune in Burgundy I loved Emmanuel Giboulot the one almost went in jail to protect his vines from chemical. The last hero of Biodinamique. 
That's was the wines I had the chance to tasted from the banquette of CO.VIO.BIO. It was very busy.
From Tuscany in Castelnuovo Berardenga a small vigneron Pacina I liked the sangiovese.
Label as I.G.T. was extremely tasty red fruit sour and sweet lots of cherry, tar and galestro minerality with hint of sweet spice for the aging in barrel, long and polish with a medium plus tannin.
Orange wine: I did prefer the Canlibero Falanghina in Benevento, wasn't much terroir driving but good and interesting.
Cappellano, from the Gabutti cru in Serralunga Barolo always a must unforgettable, no worlds to describe such a gem especially the Barolo Chinato. 09 the vintage both present the Pie Rupestris and Pie Franco.
 Podere Pradarolo from Emilia with his bottle fermented sparkling in orange wine style with Malvasia di Candia Aromatic doesn't have any equal in the world wines.
Some shots:  

     





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