2021 Riesling Ciarla Fondo San Giuseppe Review And Tasting Notes
The 2021 Riesling Ciarla Fondo San Giuseppe is a wine with monstrous potential. It is fresh, citrusy, and full of solar acidity if you uncork it now. But if you wait three or four years, it will become a tiny masterpiece. For now, the classic mineral and hydrocarbon notes are barely hinted at. The exuberance of the fruit predominates.
This does not mean that it is not a ready-made wine. Indeed you can uncork it and drink it immediately, especially if you combine it with fish lunches, mixed fried fish, and Chinese cuisine based on fish.
How is it produced?
The vines are over twenty years old and have roots in a hill that rises over 400 meters above sea level. We are in Brisighella, in the province of Ravenna, in the heart of the Romagna Apennines.
After the strictly manual harvest, the bunches are gently pressed, and the must ferments in steel, thanks to the indigenous yeasts.
Then it is split in half and rests in both wood and steel. After 6 months of aging on the fine lees, it is bottled, a few more months pass, and the wine is ready.
We say ready to be sold, even if its birth will take place in 4 years. It will be a great party at the stroke of the fifth birthday.
The wine is not filtered, no sulfites are added, and produced in the most natural way possible, giving up any alteration due to chemical agents or forcing.
Organoleptic characteristics
Do not think of a thin wine made with salt and citrus fruits. On the contrary, it has a certain richness, a sparkling roundness that leads to a splendid acidity, where citrus fruits, ginger, pepper, rock, and aromatic herbs dance on tiptoe.
The tone is carefree, and the depth is there, but it’s all played on a score where the high notes make the melody.
The tropical fruit is contained and not tired, despite being quite clear as a lure.
On the palate, it is salty, with excellent persistence, mottled with sparkling rocky peaks, but in the background, you can feel the most intimate fiber of the purebred Riesling that would like to come out.
We were dining at the Officina del Sale (nomen omen), and we picked it up as soon as we saw it on the menu. We honestly didn’t think it came out so young on the market, but we didn’t regret it.
He accompanied a fish lunch without batting an eyelid, from appetizers such as sardines with piada to first courses, even substantial ones, to finish gloriously with grilled and fried cod.
Price
17-19 euros: an honest price for a thick natural wine, one of the best Rieslings in Italy.