2017 Davide Spillare Rugoli Garganega

Region: Gambellara < Veneto < Italy            

Grapes: 90% Garganega, 10% Trebbiano

Vineyard/Cellar Stats: Certified organic + certified biodynamic farming; 80+ year old vines on white 'Gambellara' volcanic mineral soils; 18-24 hour maceration with the skins then pressed and transferred to used barriques for 10 months before spending some time in steel; bottled, unfined/unfiltered, with no added So2; zero-zero; 11.5% ABV

Winemaker: Davide Spillare

Davide works about four hectares of his family’s vineyards, right behind his house and winery somewhere in the village labyrinth of Gambellara. An early apprentice to natty wine pioneer Angiolino Maule, Davide readily adopted Maule’s ideas for his parents’ winery that at the time was still delivering their grapes to the local co-op.  He went whole hog into biodynamic viticulture, eliminating technology in the cellar (except for the pump), spontaneous fermentation, and a zero filtration, fining and sulfur policy. Despite the lack of added sulfur, Davide’s wines are clean, elegant and linear, and ageworthy.  Like Davide’s Garganega masterpiece, this single vineyard, old-vine 'Rugoli' bottling, from a small plot of 80-year old vines.

Some parts of the Veneto contain pockets of ancient volcanic soils, like Davide's plots in Gambellara, where the volcanic terroir is different than in other parts of Italy.  It is volcanic all the way to the surface, where compact horizontal bands of dark basalt are visible, giving the wines a distinct tension and stoniness.  Which is quite obvious in this intensely mineral-driven white that strikes with a lightening bolt of citrus and lemongrass. A few years of bottle age have softened the electric acidity (a tiny bit) and this wine is just hitting its stride: bone-dry, with bright fruit on the front and an alluring smoky minerality that begins to emerge with air.  Classic and extremely natural at the same time, this is a wine for every lover of crisp whites.