If you’ve got a curious palate and you’re not yet around this team of young, enthusiastic vignerons practicing serious biodynamics and reviving the use of amphora in Emilia-Romagna, we think it’s time you get acquainted with Al Di La Del Fiume. The wines are expressive, inventive, multi-dimensional and present exquisite value for such considerable care in their beautifully farmed, organic vineyard and cellar.
Fricando is one of our go-to wines for deep orange colour and full-on texture, produced from whole bunch fermented, obscure local grape variety albana, which is macerated in ceramic vessels for three months before pressing. The resulting wine is a faintly oxidative, textural ride, rife with tangy mixed citrus peel and dried stone fruit characters. The other orange in this release is the not often seen Zirudela (loosely translated as 'grandmother's storytelling') which was created to tell the story of all the indigenous white grape varieties on the farm. You get bright, balanced crunchiness with a rasp of tannins from extended skin-contact albana and a perfumed lift from the grechetto gentile and montuni. This plays particularly well with seafood, pasta and veggies.
We’ve also rushed at their Saramat cuvee, which takes barbera in a fresher, more youthful direction than so many we’ve seen. These are outstanding natural wines from a dedicated producer committed to highest quality winemaking alongside impeccable vineyard practice – with the results striking in the bottle. Unmissable.
