2016 Palazzo Tronconi 'Mocevo' Frusinate

Region: Lazio < Italy                    

Grapes: Lecinaro, Olivella Nera

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified biodynamic farming; mixture of clay-limestone; fermented in concrete tanks and aged for 12 months in used french oak with no temp control; bottled unfined/unfiltered with 16ppm SO2; 250 cases; 13% ABV

Winemaker: Marco Marrocco

Marco’s family owned this pristine vineyard land, in a medieval hill town on the border between Lazio and Campania, for generations.  His grandfather basically sold out to international varieties and sold off much of the grapes, but in 2010 Marco Marocco, an engineer, took over the 3.5 hectares of vineyard land, returned to school (at age 37) to get his Italian Somm and Oenology degrees, then headed off to make wine in Bordeaux. When he returned to his land a few years later, Marco revived abandoned, ancient vines that had been grown there for centuries.  Like Lecinaro, the main component of this wine, called Mocevo – because Mo Ce Vo’in Roman means Now We Need This!  And yes, you need this wine. Plummy and spicy with cherries, chocolate, and white pepper, it’s elegant, refined and seductive.  Like the dapper count you imagine living in this Palazzo 200 years ago.  A Palazzo you can – and should – visit if passing through, as Marco has turned the Palazzo Tronconi into a charming agriturismo with a cooking school.  If you’d like to go, email us and we’ll hook you up….