Villa Papiano’s Terra Bitter Bianco: the best Italian bitter?
We could talk to you for hours about Villa Papiano’s Terra Bitter Bianco or simply tell you that it is a unique, splendid flavored wine with an imaginative flavor.
In this period of rebirth of vermouth and bitters, this flavored wine risks being squeezed between a thousand releases and hipster labels because production is minimal, less than 1500.
But the beauty is precisely this obsessive care, the craftsmanship, the hand-picked herbs, the carefully chosen spices, and the stellar quality of the wine selected as a base. It is not a fact of exclusivity of the many but rather of sharing a tiny particle of beauty.
It is impossible to mass-produce what is the distillate of a handkerchief of mountain land in Modigliana, impossible to enclose the juice of the rocks, the grace of hawthorn, helichrysum, and the angular aroma of juniper in the bottle.
This is why it is a wine that only the lucky ones will be able to taste: it is a pearl of Italian enology. But we should not be surprised: at Villa Papiano, the link between the Casentinese Apennines, wine, and nature is vital because there is a brilliant mind like Francesco Bordini to weld everything together.
Thanks to all the brothers who share the Villa Papiano project, Francesco Bordini is not only a wise winemaker like few others but also, and above all, a passionate person with an insatiable curiosity and unique lucidity.
Hearing him talk about the sandstones, the now-vanished seas that overlooked these mountains, the importance of the forest, the balance of the microorganisms in the vineyard, or, if you like, the vineyard’s life is an illuminator.
But don’t worry, you will find all this terroir in the bottles of Villa Papiano, especially in this Terra Bitter Bianco. In addition to the wine, there are suggestions for didactic precision. Tasting this bitter is like taking a walk in these mountains. The scents are those of rocks, leaves, mountain herbs, and roots, with juniper as the setting for this aromatic symphony.
How is it produced?
The production is simple but precise, highlighting every nuance of the ingredients representing one face of this flavored wine. Cold infusion in an Albana Terra wine base!
Organoleptic characteristics
The nose is pungent, furrowed by sumptuous herbaceous aromas. The algid arrogance of the juniper binds all these pharaonic suggestions with a certain firmness. The overall tone is austere, spicy with puffs of incense, saffron, pepper, and bees, wax emerging to illuminate a fabulous bouquet. The variety is frightening; the deepness is amplified by the natural richness of Albana, not aromatic but pronounced and arrogant thanks to an extended maceration in amphora.
It is structured and complex on the palate in every kaleidoscopic refraction of flavors.
An explosion of cold flavors. The game between sweetness and bitter root flavors is titillating and makes the sip baroque but clean and severe.
It is flowing and full, never difficult, despite the wide range of flavors that are played on pressing light and dark shades. The length of the ending is pure poetry and results in a triumph of herbs, dried flowers, and oxidative and super nutty memories.
The difference with industrial products is clear and does not allow comparisons that would be ridiculous, both in terms of price range and qualitative depth.
A monochromatic and synthetic bitter like Campari pales, not so much for the lack of botanicals, which abound, but for the naturalness of the aromatic development.
If there is no depth in industrial products, the Terra Bitter Bianco Villa Papiano is quite the opposite. It is a continuous journey, a vortex that grabs you, not to mention that it changes day after day, flickers, and increases the nuttiness.
Drink it smooth, just chilled, without ice: it’s a lovely meditation wine, not a working bitter. Making cocktails with this beauty would be a pity, and it would not be convenient, considering the not affordable price.
Price
40 euros. I can already hear the screams of anger: 40 euros is too much, but you don’t have to think of a mass product but a masterpiece in a bottle. You couldn’t spend your 40 euros better, trust me.
