Cieck Erbaluce 2021

At Cieck, there are three: Domenico Caretto is the agronomist, and he takes care of the vineyards and the cellar; Lia Falconieri handles administration, the commercial side of things, and communication; Remo Falconieri, the founder of the estate, “the Archimedes of bubbly” as christened by Carlin Petrini. At the age of eighty-plus, he’s the first to arrive in the cellar every morning, at eight o’clock. The winery itself is located in San Giorgio Canavese, Piedmont, between the towns of Turin and Ivrea. Their grapes are almost all Erbaluce, an ancient white grape variety native to the Canavese district. The rest are also native varieties: Nebbiolo, Barbera, Neretto and Freisa. In this region, the “pergola” vine training system is common, creating large canopies in the vineyard rather than the neat rows one might find in the states. Cieck's vines are almost 100 years old, many of which are own-rooted and planted before the phylloxera outbreak. They are truly historic vineyards in the most literal sense of the word, an homage to winemaking traditions thousands of years in the making.

Piemonte, Italy

Erbaluce

Unfined and unfiltered, old-vine, pergola-trained.