Walter Massa is clearly the Messiah in the Timorasso story but a group of five or so early adherents can lay claim to the role of disciples in that they heard the message in the 1990s and followed along. La Colombera is numbered among that group.
The winery is owned by Elisa Semino (the winemaker), along with her father Piercarlo and her brother, and traces its roots back to a 1937 farm rental by her Grandfather. The cash crops then were wheat, chickpeas, and alfalfa while fruits, vegetables, vines, and animals were farmed for personal consumption. The vineyard was extended in the 1980s simultaneous with a decision to bottle the grapes grown on the farm.
In the 1990s, Piercarlo and Elisa saw what Massa was doing with Timorasso and, according to the company, were "among the first 5 wineries to believe in the rediscovery of Timorasso." They sought out parcels in their 20-ha estate that they felt would bring out the hallmark "marked minerality and defined quality" of the variety and settled on a site with an "alternation of clayey sandstone and marl layers, with limestone and tuff spots" and the right altitude.
In 2006, a specific portion of the vineyard was designated as the Montino cru and a Timorasso wine of the same name is produced from the grapes grown therein. The estate currently plants five different types of vineyards using a mass selection of Timorasso vines.
Grapes are farmed with a focus on a heathy environment. Only copper fungicides and sulfur are used in the vineyards and herbicides are eschewed.This conservatism carries through to the winery where only a small amount of sulfur is added just prior to bottling.
The estate currently bottles two (100%) Timorasso wines: The Montino cru and a Derthona. I tasted the the 2018 vintage of the latter.
Pale gold color initially and slightly viscuous in the glass. Intense, clear aromas of hay, sweet fruit, ice cream bean tree fruit (guaba), and liquid stone. With residence, the aromas become more refined and defined: intense sweet fruit encased in a spicy robe atop a mineral foundation.
Broad on the palate. Bright acidity -- a cross between grapefruit and orange -- with a spicy undertone. Vanilla bean, herbs, and spice intermixed with dried tamarind skin. Juiciness on the palate overtaken by encroaching minerality. Dried grape stem character. Long finish (spicy in the early stages, less so as the wine matured in the glass).
The fulsomeness on the palate addresses one of the shortcomings of a number of Italian whites. Suggestive of things to come.
No comments:
Post a Comment