Passopisciaro Contrada Rampante Terre Siciliane IGT 2018

CONTRADA RAMPANTE

Viticulturally, the 08 vintage starts in 07 when vines had come to November unstressed from a tempered year and ready to enter the winter’s rest well-nourished. There then was good fertilizing from repeated snowfalls on the mountain, and the hot three months of July, August and September were not able to stress the plants enough to stop their quick passing through growing and ripening stages; some tiredness from the dried soils came in October, but rains were already at the horizon, and carried water in just the right quantity. They made the year a great vintage, with us picking continuously from the 23rd to the end of the month. <?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

This is a very high, maybe the highest Contrada (above <?xml:namespace prefix = "st1" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />1000 meters a.s.l.) still cultivated. Steep walled terraces here climb the wall of lava above the town of Solicchiata. It sets to a fraction off dead north, to the east. Dyeing old vineyards have been saved by newcomers; soils are sandy, paler than in other places, because of a very old, oxidized lava spill. Wines from here can be very pure, a bit like white wines, lithe, lifted and long living. The cru that is harvested latest. We make wine from 1 hectare of vines of Nerello Mascalese that we hold in this Contrada. The plants are 80 years old.