2017 Claudio Plessi Muntanera Rosato of Uva Tosca

Region: Emilia Romagna < Italy

Grape: Uva Tosca

Winemaker: Claudio Plessi

In 1958, Claudio’s parents planted a vineyard on their land near
Modena, training the vines to elm trees.  A professor of agriculture,
Claudio took over the estate in 1986 and founded Il Salto, a
consortium of biodynamic farmers and natural winemakers.  He's also
part of the Vignaioli Artigiani Naturali (association of natural
wine-makers), whose objective is producing integral and vital wines
using hand-picked grapes from one’s own vineyard.  If only California
had such organization and structure around natural wine....but back to
Claudio.  In 2004, he planted 3.5 hectares of rare, hyper-local
varieties around his parents' home, allowing cover crops to grow
between the vines as they please. Including the Uva Tosca, apparently
the only grape variety able to grow at the high elevations of this
region, and a natural cross between two other obscure grapes, Schiava
Grossa and Crepallocchi.  To further grape geek out, Uva Tosca is also
believed to be a parent of Lambrusco Monterico.

Here, our Uva Tosca gets a few hours on the skin before pressing.  The
deep pink juice gets bottle fermented, then capped off without
sboccatura (process of disgorging the yeast – lees), according to
local traditions.  And it makes a seriously cool wine, an earthy,
funky, cloudy pink fizz with great tannic structure on a backbone of
cherry, wild berries (blackberries, strawberries & raspberries), dusty
roses, herby Sage and a hint of pine.  Serve cold, but not icy, and
watch how the wine changes with air.