2022 Ruscum
How do you begin to describe a wine that is guided to the glass by angels? This amber wine is a blend of local white varietals: Trebbiano, Malvasia del Lazio and Verdicchio, wild fermented separately for about 3 weeks with no temperature control. ‘Ruscum’ comes from the same vineyards and the same harvest as its little sister ‘Coenobium’, but with a little extra time on the skins (around 14 days), and definitely a leveling-up of intensity. Dried pears, sage, baked apple and hazelnuts are fore...Read More...
How do you begin to describe a wine that is guided to the glass by angels? This amber wine is a blend of local white varietals: Trebbiano, Malvasia del Lazio and Verdicchio, wild fermented separately for about 3 weeks with no temperature control. ‘Ruscum’ comes from the same vineyards and the same harvest as its little sister ‘Coenobium’, but with a little extra time on the skins (around 14 days), and definitely a leveling-up of intensity. Dried pears, sage, baked apple and hazelnuts are forever present, with hints of black teas, dried apricot, anise, and honey and a penetrating mineral salinity. Ruscum possesses a density that belies its lithe body and gentle disposition but what is most notable is the grip of fine tannins that continually, pleasantly nip at your gums, both beautifully drying and lingering. It's difficult to find skin-macerated white wines that pull off this level of balance, detail, and drinkability – while maintaining an air of gotta-have-another-glass mystery – and Ruscum does so with aplomb.
Led by Adriana and Fabiola this convent of over 80 Cistercian nuns has been organically farming their five hectares of vines in Vitorchiano, Lazio, since the early nineties, but it wasn’t until Giampiero Bea began advising them in the early 2000’s that their wines gained a larger audience. Even before Giampiero began helping them gently refine their approach and commercialise their wines, they were making frank, as-is wines produced with almost no technology. In a region rife with highly controlled, highly sulfured concoctions, here was a wine of real character, an unadorned expression of healthy grapes grown in a fascinating volcanic-soiled terroir. Bring it Lazio! The winery is nothing more than a toolshed packed to the gills with old steel tanks, fibreglass containers of various sizes, and glass demijohns tucked here and there—proving yet again that it takes the barest minimum to produce a wine of character and truth.
Read Less...