Mutiliana "Ecce Draco" 2021 Bianco Romagna

REGION: Romagna

GROWING AREA: Modigliana

VARIETIES: 50% Trebbiano, 35% Chardonnay, 15% Sauvignon Blanc

FARMING: Practicing organic

VINEYARD: 1 Ha total, between Le Grigie, the Trebbiano vineyard, Papiano, the Sauvignon Blanc vineyard, and the Chardonnay vineyard. The first two are located in the Ibola valley and the Chardonnay in the Tramazzo valley.

ALTITUDE: 430 m / 1,411 ft for the Trebbiano vineyard, 500 m / 1,640 ft for the Sauvignon Blanc and 580 m / 1903 ft for the Chardonnay.

SOILS: sandy soils originated from the crumbles of marl and sandstones

VINE AGE: 45 years for the Trebbiano, 19 years for the Sauvignon Blanc, and 20 years for the Chardonnay

VINE TRAINING: Guyot

HARVEST DATE: Second half of September

FERMENTATION & ÉLEVAGE: The three grapes are fermented separately. All spontaneous fermentations. The Trebbiano spends 3 days on the skins until the cap floats to the top. Racked in October and élevage in used barriques (fourth and fifth passage) until the bottling in April.

MALOLACTIC FERMENTATION: No. The wine has 4.2 g/l of malic acid. The high pH (3.12) stops the malolactic fermentation naturally.

SULPHUR: 50mg/l added SO2, at the end of the fermentation, in October, and at bottling, in April.

ALCOHOL: 11.5%

ANNUAL PRODUCTION: 100 cases

TASTING NOTES: Meyer lemon, brine, gravel, sage

Modigliana [Mo-DILL-ee-anna] is a relatively undiscovered high altitude sub-zone comparable to Radda or Lamole in Chianti, and the winery Mutiliana, tucked in the rustic Apennines mountains of Romagna, is quickly becoming a reference point producer.

Here is the classic Apennine bianco mountain wine. A nervous, and non-fruity wine; where the soil, shaded valley of Ibola, and the marl and sandstone soils take center stage more than the grape varieties.

As always, owner Giorgio Melandri is meticulous and hands on: he watches over the grapes basking in the cool sun all summer into the fall, he then leaves the fermentations to go as long as possible, tasting the wines from tank each morning for up to a month. He doesn’t press until all the flowers and herbs he saw in the summer come back into focus in his tasting glass.