Ezio Poggio: The Terre di Libarna Timorasso evangelist

Ezio Poggio is the third generation of his family to farm in Val Borbera. I spoke recently via Zoom with Mary (Ezio’s sister), her daughter Eugenia, and his son Guglielmo to discuss the estate and the region.

Ezio and Mary initially worked commercially in that they sold wine that they bought from others. They initiated their Timorasso-recovery project in 2003 when they began working with local farmers and planting new vineyards. The Poggios had no relationship with Walter Massa prior to 2003 but they began talking about the characteristics of the Terre di Libarna, and the differences from Monleale, in that year.

The first harvest was booked in 2008. Ezio's ongoing work to showcase the differences between Terre di Libarna and Monleale Timorasso was rewarded with the former being awarded subzone designation in 2011.

Poggio planted mostly Timorasso in the clayey, calcareous soils of his vineyard holdings. The vines are trained single Guyot and are planted at 4000 vines per ha. The Poggio vineyard is currently under organic conversion.

It is difficult growing Timorasso due to its low production and the need to harvest it as soon as possible to avoid rot.

There are four growers in the Poggio group with all grapes processed at Ezio Poggio facilities and sold under the Ezio Poggio label. A total of 10 ha of vines are planted across grower vineyards with Poggio owning 1 ha directly.

The Wines

Grapes are hand-harvested -- generally 15 days later than in Monleale -- into small cases and transferred to the winery where four Timorasso wines are produced: two still (Archetipo and Caespes) and two sparkling (one Metodo Classico, the other, Lüsarein, is made using the Charmat method).

The still wines are soft-pressed and then placed into stainless steel tanks for fermentation with selected yeasts. There is no pre-fermentation maceration. The wine rests on lees for 12 months in the cases of Archetipo and 8 months for Caespes. The Archetipo generally comes in at 13.5 - 14% alcohol while the Caespes comes in at 13%. Bottle-aging is 6 months for Archetipo and 3 months for Caespes. According to Guglielmo, Caespes reveals fresher notes of citrus and green lime and is suitable for early drinking. Because of its longer aging, Archetipo, has more body and more evolved hydrocarbon notes to accompany the lime notes of Caespes.

The grapes for the sparkling wines are grown in vineyards at elevations ranging between 600 and 700 meters. The grapes are hand-picked into small boxes and transported to the winery where they are soft-pressed and fermented in stainless steel tanks. 

The Lüsarein is made using the Martinotti method with the wine resting on lees in 30 hL autoclaves for 6 months. This wine was first made in 2010 when all of the grapes normally used for Archetipo were re-directed for this purpose. This is a vintage sparkling wine and, according to Guglielmo, retains the freshness and taste of the Caespes still wine.

The success of Lüsarein led Ezio Poggio to release a Metodo Classico sparkling wine in 2016 following some tests in 2014. This wine rests on the lees in bottle for 24 months. 2.3 g/l of residual sugar is introduced in the dosage. According to Guglielmo, the Metodo Classico demonstrates Archetipo characteristics.

Tasting Selected Ezio Poggio Wines

I tasted the 2018 edition of Archetipo and the 2019 editions of the Lüsarein and Caespes wines.

The 2019 Lüsarein showed sweet white fruit, citrus, lees notes, and slate on the nose. Limited mousse. Bright, playful lime notes on the palate. Limited residence before proceeding quickly to a dry, abbreviated finish. Moves from sparkling to easy-drinking white wine rather quickly.

The 2019 Caespes was bright in color, with limited visual evidence of maceration. It did, however, manifest the traditional Timorasso viscosity in the glass.

Green herbs, sage, sweet white fruit, sea spray, spice, and burnt orange on the nose. Lighter of body than lower-altitude Timorassi, but still registers above the 13% alcohol on the chest. A little more elegance and less intensity of the traditional Timorasso characters. Approachable. Salinity with a cupric, turmeric finish.

The 2018 Archetipo was very aromatic. Honeyed hydrocarbons, toasted bread, sweet white fruit, and spice on the nose. Broad entry with citrus, intense spice, and drying minerality. Perfume tones with hint of sapidity, the latter of which increases with residence. Stimulative of the salivary glands. Persistent. Long, dry finish.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The Timorasso wines of Nebraie (Rocchetta Ligure, Colli Tortonesi, Alessandria)

Grape production in the southern reaches of Colli Tortonesi should be focused on Val Borbera rather than the larger, more amorphous Terre di Libarna, according to Andrea Tacchella of Azienda Agricola Nebraie. He laughs sheepishly as he adds "Ezio (of Ezio Poggio and the leading proponent of the Terre di Libarna subzone) does not agree with me" in this regard. 

I conversed with Andrea on this and other matters in a recent Zoom conversation and report on those discussions in this post.

Andrea Tacchella
(modification of a picture
on his Facebook page)

Prior to his entry into the wine business, Andrea was involved in sales. He left that business to pursue a Bachelor's degree in Enology and Marketing at the Catholic University in Piacenza. He was awarded the degree in 2014. During the course of his studies, he engaged in wine-related projects in Valtellina and Gavi and fell in love with all aspects of grape growing and winemaking.

Andrea's father was born in Rocchetta Ligure in Val Borbera and, upon his graduation, he decided to return there to launch his "life project." In furtherance of that goal, he bought 4 ha of land and planted Timorasso vines in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Andrea refers to 2017 as "a very black year" because they were hit by a freeze which destroyed 8500 of the young vines. This was a Colli-Tortonesi-wide freeze but was especially hard on Val Borbera. He had three weeks with hot temperatures in the early part of April and then between April 19 - 21 had temperatures of -7 degrees followed by a number of very cold days. This was a devastating blow from which he has not fully recovered. Even with some replanting he is only at 2 ha of vineyards in production today. 

The climate in this area is Mediterranean with influences from the sea. The area is subject to frequent thermic excursions during the growing season, conditions which contribute greatly to the acidity that is a hallmark of the region's grapes.

The vineyard sits at 500 m altitude where the soils are clay with limestone schist. It is farmed organically (certified) with only copper and sulfur treatments applied (between 6 and 10 treatments per year are allowed). In addition to pests and diseases, the grower has to contend with the damage that can be done by large animals such as wild boars and deer. He has built a 1-km-long metallic defense to keep such threats at bay.

Andrea tries to show respect for the ground and to maintain the life resident therein. He practices green manure, with plantings in alternate rows. All work in the vineyard is performed by hand except for mowing of the grass which is done using tractor attachments. Cutting occurs at the end of May or beginning of June.

A total of 18000 vines are planted in the 2 ha currently in production. In terms of results to date:

• 2018 yielded good quality fruit; a total of 4000 bottles were produced
• 2019 was good for quantity but the grapes were damaged by moths; 7000 bottles produced.

Andrea contracts for assistance in terms of vineyard management but does most of the cellar work on his own. He harvests by hand in late September - early October, with the pick date determined by technical analysis of acid and potential alcohol (12 - 13% preferred) levels.

Grapes are whole-bunch-pressed (in an ancient press) and placed into temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks of varying size. There is no maceration and fermentation proceeds with indigenous yeasts. The process runs for approximately 20 days.

Andrea makes three wines from these grapes: Mec L'È?, Bolle in valle, and Bertume.

Nebraie's wines (Sourced from
Andrea Tacchella's Facebook page)

Mec L'È? is dialect for What's up? He gave the wine the name after waiting over nine months for the refermentation in bottle to begin. This is a 100% Timorasso sparkling wine with refermentation facilitated by wine must. The must is conservd in refrigerated tanks until Andrea is ready to combine it with the wine for refermentation. 500 bottles of this wine are produced.

Bolle is also a wine refermented in bottle but it follows the Metodo Classico style with the second fermentation driven by added sugar and yeast. Pressure is held to between 4 and 5 atmospheres. 500 bottles

Bertume -- dialect for Saint Bartholomew -- is a classic Timorasso wine. The first vintage was bottled two years ago but the wine, in his estimation, still needs time. In the future he will only sell the classic Timorasso when it is ready for market; that is, when it displays notes of petroleum. 1500 bottles.

Nebraie falls within the official Terre di Libarna subzone but Andrea does not use that designation on his labels. He designates his wines as White Wine, Sparkling Wine, and Spumante (It should be noted that the sparkling wines produced by Nebraie do not adhere to either the Colli Tortonesi or Terre di Libarna specifications. The Colli Tortonesi regulations allow for a sparkling wine made via the Charmat method and comprised of a minimum of 95% Cortese and a maximum of 5% of other authorized non-aromatic white grapes. The designation for sparkling wines made in the Terre di Libarna sub-zone: a minimum of 60% Timorasso and a maximum of 40% of other authorized non-aromatic white grapes made via the Charmat method.).

In terms of markets, Andrea has a small deal for distribution within Italy but it is a work-in-progress for deals beyond the national border.

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Andrea considers himself a natural winemaker and Val Borbera is at the center of his philosophy; the place best-suited in all of Colli Tortonesi, given the growing conditions, for the production of sparkling wine. He will continue to expand in that space and may introduce some local varieties much further on.

Andrea feels fortunate that his dad was born in Val Borbera. It is a great place for a young person to get a start on a life project. It is a difficult place to start but it is beautiful and wild and has a lot of space for development. It is perfect for him because he likes the challenge of rebuilding an area that was organized and managed 50 to 60 years ago but had reverted to nature due to neglect.

There is a collegial and cooperative atmosphere between the winemakers in Colli Tortonesi -- and Andrea takes full advantage of that -- but because of his age and farming practices, he tends to gravitate more towards the young, organic farmers in the region.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Colli Tortonesi DOC's Terre di Libarna subzone

Much as Walter Massa's efforts were responsible for the resuscitation of the Timorasso variety in the Tortona hills, Ezio Poggio launched an -- ultimately successful -- effort to reclaim the variety's rightful place in Val Borbera. I discuss the Terre di Libarna growing zone in this post.

The Terre di Libarna subzone was championed by Ezio Poggio because of the history of the Timorasso grape in the region and the difference in orographic and climatic conditions vis a vis the Monleale area. The zone covers Val Borbera and Val Spinti and is so named because they did not want to name it after one of the valleys over the other. The decision was this made to give it the name of the ancient Roman city that had stood between the two valleys.

The Val Borbera is the valley formed by the Borbera River. It is surrounded by high mountains which serve to isolate it from surrounding valleys and the ravages of industrialization. As shown in the map below, the Alta Val Borbera runs in a northeasterly direction while the lower valley runs almost directly east.

According to Cascina Barbàn, wine has been made in Val Borbera for centuries, with documents from Napoleanic times illustrating the breadth of grapegrowing across the region. As late as the 1960s, 275 ha of vineyards were planted between Vignole Borbera and Carrega Ligure with 60 of those located in Alta Val Vorbera. Most of the plantings were dedicated to Timorasso.

With elevations ranging between 400 and 600 m, Val Borbera has the highest-altitude vineyards in Colli Tortonesi. It also has a markedly different temperature profile. According to Maurizio Carucci of Cascina Barbàn, the Tortona hills, with its hot, humid summers, are more reflective of a Po Valley influence. Val Borbera, on the other hand, is colder in the winter, has more significant diurnal temperature variation, and much more rainfall over the course of the growing season. The diurnal temperature variation supports the production of highly aromatic grapes while the cool temperatures extends the growing season. Maurizio sees at least a 20-day difference in harvest dates between the two zones.

Val Borbera soils are primarily marly clay and silty marl originating in the Lower Oligocene.

The subzone Terre di Libarna is illustrated in the figure below.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme