Vermentino Reserve 2025 Celebrating the 50th Through 11/23 $22.00 vs $24.00
$ 22.00Native to the maritime growing regions of Liguria, Corsica and Sardinia, Vermentino has adapted splendidly to our warm climate in Piedmont Virginia. A spontaneously ingratiating white wine of self-proclaiming love for seafood and fish in all preparations, Vermentino’s dry but distinctly luscious minerality is complemented by generous palate weight and length, which we capture with fermentation and aging in stainless steel, under continuing lees contact of at least 7 or 8 months.
Featured profile
In recent years, with the standout success of Viognier in our terroir, we have methodically searched for other candidates for adoption among the warm climate varietals of European viticulture. Consistent success with Vermentino, whose cultivation is concentrated in the Tyrrhenian Sea regions of Liguria, coastal Tuscany, and on the islands of Corsica and Sardinia, has encouraged us to launch also the very successful limited production of Fiano, and of Falanghina, both widely grown along the coastline of Puglia on the Adriatic Sea.
Our Italian winemaker, Luca Paschina, frequently revisited the Ligurian Vermentino vineyards as he was growing up an hour away in Piemonte. There, the vines are planted on very warm, south-facing terraces. Producing large berries of thick skins, resistant to rain, in loose clusters offering natural ventilation, Vermentino ripens consistently, within a wide range of seasonal growing conditions. The Ligurian model proved very adaptable to our comparably warm Virginia Piedmont.
The grapes are fermented in stainless steel, avoiding malolactic fermentation, and the wine is aged in stainless steel only, with lees contact of no less than 7 to 8 months.
Vermentino creates a wine of medium lightness of body, strategically poised between Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, yet with the lively middle palate of Sancerre and length recalling Chablis. Pale yellow, with tints of silvery green, it is a wine of floral brightness and inherent minerality, with traces of Pinot Grigio’s subtle salinity.
We happily admit, the immediate success of this varietal corresponded with a natural preference for a brilliantly complex dry white wine for seafood of Italian derivation. An aromatic bouillabaisse, a bowl of mussels or clams steamed in their juices with garlic and a crust of fresh bread, partner truly euphorically with Vermentino. The critical embrace of this wine has been as exuberant as the wine itself, affirming a consistency in vintage performance approached only by the finest wines, anywhere.
FOOD PAIRINGS
Chicken scaloppine in Vermentino and lemon-butter sauce
Pan-fried blue crab cakes & grilled asparagus
Sea scallop gratin in cream sauce with fresh parsley and garlic
TASTING NOTES
Full of lemon-blossom character, lychee and pear. At once juicy and elegant, delightfully dry, with some real structure, racy acidity and a long mineral finish. The first sip will make you crave for more. Drink it young or hold some for a up to 3 years.
Vinification
VINTAGE FACTORS
Cellar life 10 yrs
A most memorable vintage full of uncertainty yet with a triumphant ending. Budbreak began late March, in mid-April we dodged a severe frost, bloom started with Nebbiolo on May 8th with ideal weather conditions, then from late May through early August we received weekly shower weekly resulting in vigorous vegetation which required, several hedging of the canopy, meticulous leaf pulling around clusters and reducing cluster count to promote air circulation, all of this with the hope that the weather would adjust. Quite miraculously on August 16th clear skies, warm temperature, gentle breezes set in enabling an amazing ripening all the way through September 26th when we finished harvest ahead of some rains and declared an OCTAGON VINTAGE. The earlier ripening Sauvignon Blanc, Moscato and Pinot Grigio that were picked in the third week of August we rate as very good quality because still affected by the early summer rains, all other later varietals are outstanding.
Fermentation
In stainless steel
Aging
On the lees for 7 months
Composition
Vermentino 100%
Analysis
Alcohol, 13.0%
Residual Sugars, 0.1%
Total Acidity, .60