Le Piane Maggiorina 2021

Nebbiolo, Croatina, Vespolina, Malvasia, and a handful of other grapes.

Here, this ancient, thousand-year-old heritage of Novara wine-growing is kept alive, probably dating back to before the Romans, a system of planting that is found in Pliny the Elder's 'Natural History' (23-79 AD). For hundreds of years, the traditional 'Maggiorina' system was the only known way of cultivation: three vines spread out at the four cardinal points forming the 'Maggiorino' square. All of the vines that survived the collapse of the 1950s, planted between 1910 and 1920 (post phylloxera) are still productive and in good health today, their fruit is of great quality even if small in quantity. At the harvest, the grapes from the parcels are picked together and vinified together, which makes for a complex, varied wine with different fruits and lots of spices, while remaining a cheerful, savoury and easy-drinking wine.