Recently highlighted in an NYT article on orange wine, Ageno is quite special with four months of maceration. Delicious and quite unique!
Tasting Notes: Full of stone and tropical fruit, but still fresh on the palate with the grip of tannins from the long maceration.
Pairing Suggestions: Heavier Fish, Tapas, Roasted Chicken
Emilia-Romagna, Italy
Type: Orange | Vintage: 2015 | Sulfites: No Added | Alcohol: 13% | Varietal: Malvasia, Ortrugo, Trebbiano | Production: Organic, Vegan | Importer: Louis Dressner Selections
Producer Profile
La Stoppa is a long-established estate, founded over a century ago. Situated in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, its vineyards stretch along the Trebbiola Valley, not far from the Trebbia river in the province of Piacenza. The estate extends over 58 hectares, of which 30 are planted to vines, and the remaining 28 are left to nature. In the second half of the nineteenth century, a lawyer named Giancarlo Ageno discovered the place to be apt for winemaking and started the production of wines with significant and curious names such as Bordò, Bordò bianco, Pinò. Steel and cement tanks are used for the vinification of the de-stemmed fresh grapes. For our riservas, after fermentation the wines are left for long ageing in wooden barrels and tanks, followed by a period of bottle-ageing. All of the fermentations are spontaneous with indigenous yeasts, no sulfites and at ambience temperature. We allow long skin-contact (maceration) to extract the maximum from the grapes and to capture the distinctive characteristics of each vintage. Wood-ageing of the wines allows the wine to breathe and mature slowly. This is a necessary practice for our wines, which are made from grapes grown in a hot and dry climate. Bottle-ageing is also a very important process to improve and balance every constituent element of the wine.