Falò d'ottobre | I Carpini

DENOMINATION: Colli Tortonesi DOC
TYPE: red
GRAPE: 100% merlot
ORIGIN: Italy, Piedmont
AGEING POTENTIAL: 7-8 years
SERVING TEMPERATURE: 16-18° C
GLASS: medium-sized red wine goblet
ALCOHOL: 12.5% vol.
FORMAT: 75 cl

THE WINE

TECHNICAL SPECIFICS

FRESHNESS: ◼︎◼︎◼︎◼︎◻︎
BODY: ◼︎◼︎◼︎◼︎◻︎
SAPIDITY: ◼︎◼︎◼︎◻︎◻︎
SOFTNESS: ◼︎◼︎◼︎◻︎◻︎
TANNIN: ◼︎◼︎◼︎◼︎◻︎

NOTES BY OUR SOMMELIERS

👁 Very intense ruby red with violet reflections, tending to bright garnet with ageing.

👃🏻 on the nose the bouquet is broad: red fruit, cherry, morello cherry, tamarind, raspberry, small berries. The fruity notes are enriched by a slight hint of pepper, and then cloves, leather, coffee, liquorice and balsamic notes;

👄 in the mouth it is full-bodied and great structure, the tannin is present, very smooth, for a fine and persistent wine.

FOOD PAIRINGS

A wine of great character that goes well with hors d'oeuvres based on cured meats, first courses with meat sauces, roasts and small game dishes. And again: medium or long matured cheeses. For some vegan suggestions, try it with pasta with broccoli or potato and mushroom pie.

WINE-MAKING AND REFINEMENT

A red wine that comes from a few rows of red grapes that reach the ideal level of ripeness only in very rare vintages: not even 600 bottles were produced in this vintage.

The vineyard (380 metres above sea level) is managed organically.

Manual harvesting in boxes with selection of the bunches, 20-day vinification with maceration on the skins, spontaneous fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Maturation for 12 months on the noble lees in steel vats, followed by 24 months in 500-litre French oak barrels of medium toast and fine grain, and finally 24 further months in barriques. A truly special and rare red, which matures a further 2 years in bottle before release.

YOU'LL LOVE IT FOR...

its character.

ORIGIN

TERROIR

We are in the Tortonesi hills area: a succession of cultivated fields, vineyards and orchards that represents a natural continuation of the Po Valley up to the complex mountain chain of Lower Piedmont, where the Alps give way to the Apennines.

Many white grape varieties make up the Tortona hills area: cortese, favorita, müller-thurgau, pinot bianco, pinot grigio, riesling Italico, riesling renano, barbera bianca, chardonnay, sauvignon, sylvaner verde and timorasso. Timorasso, in particular, is a very rare - and excellent - Piedmontese variety, a native of the province of Alessandria saved from extinction by Walter Massa himself, from which aromatic and drinkable wines are obtained, also used in the distillation of grappa. Its production is limited, but of very high quality. The wine made from Timorasso grapes (called Derthona, after the ancient name of the area) is a real gem, highly appreciated by wine experts.

WINERY

In the south-east of Piedmont, south of the Gavi region, lie Tortona and the Colli Tortonesi. These hills are the cradle of one of Italy's most fascinating native grape varieties: timorasso. It is a grape that possesses the gift, like few others, of developing types of aromas and flavours of incredible complexity as the years go by. Paolo Carlo Ghislandi, head and oenologist of the company I Carpini, is the man who gave life to the Cascina di Pozzol Groppo as it is today. Purchased in the late 1990s, Paolo Carlo spent months studying, really listening, before designing the vineyards and cellar. The soil and climate characteristics of the Cascina are excellent, but for wine production this was not enough: it was necessary to devise a production system as close as possible to the ideal conditions for ripening the grapes and transforming them into wine. And so it was. Paolo Carlo sees winemaking as a combination of art and nature and refers to his products as art wines. It is no wonder that he works according to the dictates of organic viticulture, often following even more natural practices supported by the use of indigenous yeasts, low yields per hectare, few added sulphites and carefully controlled fermentations. The wines of I Carpini come to life in the glass, they are multifaceted, never banal, produced with universally known grapes such as barbera or semi-unknown ones such as albarossa. And of course timorasso, the pivot around which the rebirth of the entire territory revolves, thanks to the intuitions of winemakers like Paolo Carlo. A 'squeezing of territory' where it is only the peculiarity of the vintage that gives the stamp and uniqueness of each bottle. The wines of I Carpini take you by the hand and you have to surrender to their perfume and flavour. Paolo Carlo often says: 'it is the wine that decides when it is ready, let it be and wait for it without haste'. A natural approach, such as holistic, towards the element of wine, in its broadest and most territorial meaning possible.