Wine of the Month: Pignoletto D.O.C. Spumante Extra Dry 2019

Those of you who regularly visit our social pages certainly already know that during the month of April, despite all the difficulties of this period, Tenute d'Italia was able to complete the production of the new vintage of one of its most popular products: the Pignoletto D.O.C. Extra Dry sparkling wine from the Santerno Wines line.

Produced entirely with grapes from our Linaro vineyards, this wine has come not only to reaffirm the strong connection that Tenute d'Italia maintains with its territory and its traditions, but in this precise historical moment it stands as a real example of the tenacity with which life, despite the difficulties, manages to go on and blossom like a flower in the concrete. Some of the most delicate phases of its realization, first of all the refermentation, took place in the midst of the crisis that has hit our country, demonstrating how, against the background of history, nature retains its rhythms, its times, unstoppable and imperturbable, sometimes ruthless, but always able to show us how, after all, life goes on.

So, in tasting this wine we are experiencing a small miracle, and not just for the simple fact that its production reached completion, but above all for the incredible quality that it has been able to guarantee throughout the entire production process and, consequently, to the final product.

The Pignoletto D.O.C. Extra Dry Sparkling Wine 2019 "Santerno" presents itself to our eyes with a magnificent bright straw yellow colour, with soft green reflections that make us foretaste a joyfully fresh and jaunty wine.

The perlage is fine and elegant, the sign of an excellent refermentation technique - performed in an autoclave (Charmat method) to preserve intact the typical fragrance of the grape.

We approach the still glass for the first time, to appreciate the principle aromas of our sparkling wine, and we are immediately struck by the intensity of the fruity notes, in a delightful game of tag between citrus and tropical sensations. Moving the glass gently, however, our sparkling wine reveals itself in all its complexity, combining fine floral notes of jasmine and a slight herbaceous counterpoint.

It is now clear how each phase of our tasting, each new step we take to draw closer to our wine, to get to know it better, surprises us: it literally fills us with curiosity to taste, ready - and eager - to be surprised again.
Our expectations are in no way unfulfilled: tasting is perhaps the most exciting moment of our journey to discover this Pignoletto D.O.C. Sparkling wine, the one in which we can fully grasp its personality.

If our olfactory senses have been charmed by the intense fruity notes, the palate is pervaded by an elegant, clean, solemn taste. The finesse of the so-called hard parts of our wine - freshness, flavour and effervescence - is perfectly appreciable both in their singularity and in the entirety, in the interaction they create to outline the clear contours of the vigorous body of this sparkling wine. Just as on the nose, the intensity engages with an excellent aromatic persistence, guaranteed on the palate by that hint of a bitter note at the end which is the true distinctive signature of the grape.

I believe that anyone who has the opportunity to carefully appreciate this Pignoletto D.O.C. Extra Dry Sparkling Wine 2019 will agree that it really is worth imagining occasions for consumption well beyond the simple aperitif: personally I have always found the pairing of Pignoletto in the "mossa" version (sparkling and fizzy) with some of the best, most typical dishes of Bolognese cuisine. A prime example would be tortellini in broth for which I believe that this specific sparkling wine can be guaranteed as an almost perfect accompaniment, precisely by virtue of that slightly bitter final note.

On the thresholdof the summer season, I can’t help but dream of being able to soon accompany this Pignoletto Spumante with a tasty fried fish, perhaps enjoyed right on the seashore in the company of all those friends that I can't wait to embrace again.