A super-weird wine. It’s made from an undisclosed blend of grapes (Nebbiolo, Barbera, Dolcetto, maybe others) from Barbaresco, organically grown, vinified and aged in sandstone amphorae submerged in a pool of water. Gea himself describes the vinification as “water and wine making love” (I’ve also seen it as “water and wine f*cking”- I don’t know enough Italian to determine which translation is more accurate). Bottled in leftover Travaglini bottles with hand-made and hand-applied labels. Unfiltered, unfined, minimal sulfur; the stuff that wine-geek dreams are made of.
Very pale in color, translucent, watery appearing, reddish brown in hue. Very fruity on the nose; red raspberries and red cherries, fresh cranberries, and lingonberry soda from Ikea. Is this wine or fruit juice? Funny that it smells so fruity, because the palate leads with flavors of leather, earth, soy sauce. It has the prickle of remaining CO2, the nose of a young wine, but the flavor profile of a real geezer. Only after the tertiary flavors resolve, some red fruit flavor emerge, but they remain in the background. Acidity is high, the tannins are barely perceptible. Smells like fruit juice but tastes like it’s already over the hill. What an odd disjointed nose/palate experience. I handled the bottle super carefully, but there is a fine silty sediment that contaminates nearly half the bottle. What a bummer.
I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking here, but I’m not a fan of the end result. I really enjoyed his Cul Otte bottling, which is another weirdo one-off, but I just don’t find this one very enjoyable.
