ANCESTRAL LUNARIA
Malvasia ORANGE Terre di Chieti IGP with spontaneous fermentation lees.
Malvasia is a grape variety with a unique history.
Its name derives from a contraction of the name of the Greek city of “Monemvasia” located in the Peloponnese and means “one door”, as the port giving access to the fortress had only one entrance.
The name Monemvasia was Italianized to “Malvasia” by the Venetians who began importing it between 1500 and 1700.
Thanks to them, Malvasia spread throughout the Mediterranean area where, following cross-breeding with local vines, it gave rise to various vines named Malvasia (Istriana del Lazio, di Bosa delle Lipari and others).
In this regard, the ampelographer Di Rovasenda (1824-1913) wrote “[…] only those perfumed grapes that have the flavour of Muscat should be called Malvasia […] However, there are too many grapes with a simple flavour called Malvasia […] a name they carry unduly”.
Breeding system
Abruzzese awning or pergola (in the local dialect “la capanne”).
Traditional expanded cultivation method of the area characterised by a low density of plants per hectare (1,100-1,600), which favours the natural harmony of the expansion and vegetative development of the roots, bunches and leaves.
In the “capanne” the harvest and pruning are exclusively manual and closely linked to the winemaker and his small peasant property.
Type of soil
Deep clayey soils with calcareous veins.
Altitude
Vineyards cultivated at 400-500 m above sea level
Type of agricultural management
Biodynamic with organic and DEMETER certification. Biodynamic cultivation is important for the microbiological life of the vineyard and crucial for the spontaneous fermentation of a biodynamic wine. The use of conventional fungicides weakens yeast populations and makes spontaneous fermentation very difficult. The originality and uniqueness of biodynamic wine lies in its connection to the place and the year's climatic conditions. Biodynamics restores the wine to its place of origin, defined by the French as "Terroir" (territoriality).
– ORANGE WINE
It derives from the ancestral winemaking technique typical of our countryside, characterized by the prolonged contact of the skins with the must, which gave the wine unusual flavors and colors.
This technique disappeared with the advent of new winery machinery that removes the skins before fermentation. In Malvasia Orange Lunaria Ancestrale, the skins are left to macerate for two to three days with the must, without temperature control, without the addition of sulfites, and fermented with natural grape yeasts.
During maceration the tannins are extracted and these give the wine the structure of a red.
“Orange” wines that are neither white, nor rosé, nor red (the fourth color of wine) deserve a separate category.
Orange wine, like red wine, contains much more antioxidants than white wine.
This is because by fermenting the must of white grapes in contact with the skin and seeds, the extraction of polyphenols (resveratrol) is obtained, which function as antioxidants in the human body.
One study found that white wine produced through this maceration process had six times greater antioxidant activity than standard white wine.
Its antioxidant activity is similar to that of red wine.
STILL WINE characterized by:
– SPONTANEOUS FERMENTATION
The biodynamic producer does not use biotechnology or chemical-physical corrections in the cellar and leaves nature the responsibility of creating the wine.
Spontaneous fermentations work with what nature offers each year and rely on the strength and health of the vineyard to obtain large grapes covered in the microflora essential for fermentation.
– NO ADDED SULPHITES (less than 10 Mg-lt)
Biodynamic wine has little need for preservatives; its grapes already possess all the elements necessary to stabilize and preserve themselves naturally over time.
Spontaneous fermentation cannot be conducted in the presence of sulfites; adding it to the grapes or musts in the cellar eliminates the many families of indigenous yeasts present on the skins, which are the fundamental basis of every biodynamic wine.
A wine of great complexity needs as many yeasts as possible.
– UNFILTERED WITH BASE
Most tasters consider clarity a guarantee of quality or excellence and have created a false stereotype of the “perfect wine” which, however, is linked to the imperfect.
Extreme filtration impacts the microflora (yeasts and bacteria) creating a sterile, chemical and lifeless wine.
The unfiltered, sulfites-free wine is an ever-evolving kaleidoscope of flavors with a broad spectrum of aromas, starting with a beautiful, crisp minerality and a depth of flavor.
The production of unfiltered wines with lees represents the genuine transparency of offering a wine that has not had any additives: "only a biodynamic wine, which by regulation does not require any additives, can be drunk unfiltered."
On the top of the bottle you will find the phrase:
Nothing is added,
nothing is taken away,
UNFILTERED WINE WITH LEAVES.
– NATURAL TARTARIC STABILIZATION
Finding small crystals at the bottom of a bottle?
These are harmless precipitations of tartrates and mean that the wine “felt the cold”.
In biodynamics, physical (refrigeration) and chemical treatments are not permitted. The winter cold and time naturally stabilize the wine.
The conventional tartaric stabilization technique, which involves refrigerating the wine at -5/-6°C for 6/7 days, leads to significant energy consumption for the sole purpose of avoiding the presence of a few milligrams of harmless tartrate crystals in the wine.
For tasting
Color: orange (not pink) with the presence of amber hues of greater or lesser intensity depending on the ripeness of the grapes and the time of maceration with the skins.
Aroma: The main players are certainly the terpenes that give aromas such as citrus and flowers like wild rose, then the herbaceous notes also arrive that slide towards alfalfa.
Flavors: A balance of rustic sweetness and bitterness on the palate; smooth and bitter.
