Donor: Pietro @ Prima Materia
Value: $xxx
MinBidIncr: $10
Prima Materia can donate a 3-pack 750ml of older vintage wines that are pretty cool:
- 2016 Prima Materia Refosco,
- NV Prima Materia 15/16’ Aglianico
- NV Prima Materia 14/15/16’ Nebbiolo
Pietro the winemaker, please tell us about these wines. “All estate bottled and not for amateurs”
This is a three pack of slightly older wines that are near and dear to my heart. All come from our ten-acre vineyard in Lake County, grown at 1,500’ elevation in red volcanic soil. Two are non-vintage because the 2015 harvest was (up until the comparably bad 2021) the shortest in history, meaning in some cases bottling just one barrel for the year of a wine, so we did a little NV in two of the cases. Here is what you get:
- 2016 Refosco - This was the first year that I picked it in two passes, three weeks apart. The first pass to keep bright acidity, spice and lower alcohol with a shorter fermentation, the second was for ripe tannin, more body and color. Refosco shares a pepper compound (rotundone) with Syrah and the grapes is known for an iodine/mineral/somewhat metallic note. If these savory flavors float your boat (I love them) then this could be your new bff. If you want plush roundness, er, maybe this isn’t your jam.
- Aglianico (2015/2016 vintages) - This is a big, black-fruited knuckle dragger. The 2015 produced the most gnarly Aglianico on the books with dense, earthy black-rock structure, serious tannin in the Italian tradition that has been polished by time and framed by mineraliciousness. Robert Parker might have called it backward. The 2016 adds a bit of body and red fruit, but this still speaks of deep old-school Southern Italy - stout, grump, stubborn, and beautiful for it.
- Nebbiolo (2016/2016 vintages) - The opposite to the Aglianico above, this is intensely aromatic, packed with red and cranberry fruit, floral tones and cinnamon spice with a bit of that earthiness poking though and though it does have Nebbiolo tannin, these two cool vintages went long and were very light in crop, so this Nebbiolo is actually lower acid then normal, down-right pleasant and round, answering Tom Hill’s famous question: What if Nebbiolo was actually nice to drink and not hurty?
Okay then, that’s good enough for a wineberserker!
Wine inspired by Italy, guided by California
After spending many years cooking in professional kitchens, I accidentally fell in love with the Italian wines of Taurasi (made from the Aglianico grape), Barolo (Nebbiolo), and Tuscany (Sangiovese). They are wines with beautiful aromatics and profound earthiness and focus – exactly the same qualities I had been trying to achieve with food. Today, we grow 10 acres of vineyard planted to 13 different grapes at 1,500’ elevation with a focus on those beautiful Italian vines that spoke so deeply to me.