Spèrgle Il Farneto: Make Spergola Great Again!
If you want to discover the goodness of a noble but almost unknown grape variety from Emilia Romagna, try the Spèrgle made by Farneto winery. It is not the usual bland and sharp wine like a lemonade, but a lovely orange wine produced according to the biodynamic philosophy, in the Farneto plateau, between the delightful hills of Scandiano and Canosa.
Freshness, elegance, and drinkability return to have meaning and a human dimension. Even for a vine that until now has been snubbed or at most used as a blending grape for its impressive acidity.
It is not a set or fake wine or distorted by the processing in the cellar, but a splendid wine, fermented grape juice. Of course, the attention in the field is evident: working sustainably and respectfully of the vine does not mean working in an elementary way or letting the wine make itself, but only respecting it.
How is it produced?
Spergola in purity from a small plot of 2 hectares.
The wine is neither filtered nor clarified. The yeasts are those present on the grapes.
It is not an amber and tannic orange wine: the maceration is short but lasts just long enough to give the wine more body and a vague tannic memory.
It does the malolactic, an essential factor that helps to diminish the lemonade effect. But by now, we have understood that it should no longer scare whites.
The result is a wine with a splendid profile, it does not hide, but it does not deceive you even with false promises. This is a whole other world, from black and white to technicolor.
Organoleptic characteristics
Its fullness, the roundness of the sensations and the fruit, and the layers of flavor are incredible. But don’t think of an extravagant or tired wine, but of a pulpy wine, with an electrifying charge, full of energy and depth, vertical in development like a rainbow of taste.
The bouquet is all played on the yellow color, in autumn foliage style. It starts with lemons and jam in melon foam, up to mango, cooked apples, medlars, and finally even higher, to explore the depths of a constellation of oat-based banana bread dipped in honey.
The tone is penetrating. The aromas are bright and designed with great elegance and follow one another, interspersed with rocks, jasmine, black tea, and sage.
It is tasty, very fresh, but comforted by a fruit that warms and rounds the sip on the palate.
The flavor mixes with citrus fruits, warmer flavors, very light tannin, and a floral finish with a delicate taste of almond and maple syrup.
The balance is excellent, with pure gustatory tension, a structure in constant contrast between its elements, but credible.
Compact and sidereal, consider it a concentrate of precision and juice, even if it has a rare drinkability, even for the most crafty oranges.
The idea of the rebirth of Spergola excites us, as does the growth of this constellation of small wineries.
But the fact is that the natural movement is overturning the stale axioms of industrial Emilian wine, not only for sparkling wines, bringing more awareness to both winemakers and consumers and a desire for drinkable wines, with character and in three dimensions.
A final note on the maceration on the skins, now cross and delight of natural wines: it is homologation only if the winemaker does not know how to do it.
If done wisely and not to jump on the trendy train of the orange wine, it is a precious resource, as demonstrated by this wine that rises and makes unrecognizable a vine considered, until a few years ago, a nerdy clone of Sauvignon Blanc.
Food Pairings
Parmigiana ravioli, spaghetti with clams, chicken tikka masala, Chicken Cacciatore, Vitello Tonnato, truffle risotto, pasta alla carbonara, Pad Thai.