2021 Oliviero Pastoris, Canavese Nebbiolo DOC, La Cucca, Alto Piemonte, Italy.
The Pastoris Canavese Nebbiolo “La Cucca” is a ruby/brick hued old school wine that has all the right stuff for an exceptional price, especially considering the depth and complexity it shows. I had this Nebbiolo, from the Alto Piemonte, after tasting the Pastoris Erbaluce, which was stunning, the Erbaluce grape, indigenous to the Caluso area is a rarity, but has the presence of a elegant white Burgundy, especially when lees aged, that adds texture, is slightly reductive, and usually made without malolactic conversion, as seen by Pastoris. In recent years we’ve seen an exciting revival of Piemonte white grapes, with rare native varietals like Timorasso Derthona, from near Barolo and Erbaluce di Caluso being excellent examples to search out and enjoy, and I recommend checking out these Pastoris wines, with this Nebbiolo being, as mentioned above, a tasty value as well. The palate is is medium bodied with good acidity and tannin, but with enough fruit density to impress, showing classic brandied cherry, damson plum, balsamic dipped strawberry, briar laced raspberry and Moro orange, along with seeped roses, minty herbs, tarry licorice, old cedar, a bit of game, framboise and truffle. This La Cucca bottling is 100% Nebbiolo, harvested from a single terraced parcel of vines that were planted between 1970 and 1980, all above 350 meters with cool exposures on ancient morainic glacier formed soils. This sandy site has a complex combination of clay, quartz and small stones and is picked as late as possible for depth of flavors. Winemaker Eugenio Pastoris de-stemmed the grapes and fermented and macerated them for close to 3 months on the skins before racking the wine to 60% cement vat and 40% old wood, small barriques, where in aged just 6 months, after which it was bottled aged 2 years in the cellar before release.
The all organic Oliviero Pastoris label, is now led by Eugenio Pastoris, who humbly says “Honestly, my style is under construction because I am young.” That may be, but there’s some potential here and I loved his Erbaluce and this beautiful Canavese Nebbiolo bottling and look forward to tasting more of Eugenio’s wines as they become available here in the States. Taking over from his father Massimo, Eugenio Pastoris Eugenio, who studied Latin and engineering, realized his scientific mind wasn’t meant to be working behind a desk, or being a racing engineer for Formula 1, a sport his importer says he’s still obsessed with. So It was to return home to his family’s organically farmed vineyards in the remote town Viverone, northwest of Turino at the edge of the Alto Piemonte. With the rise in popularity to the rare native Erbaluce grape, Eugenio wanted to be a revolutionary figure in in the area and return to the lost local appellations of Collina Morenica Bianco, made in the hills of Viverone with Erbaluce, and Collina Morenica Rosso Rubino, for wines made with Nebbiolo, Freisa, Croatina and/or Barbera. Interestingly, according to The Source Imports, both of these classifications were abandoned when Italy joined the European Union, and are labeled now under the appellation names of Erbaluce di Caluso and Canavese Rosso. For a few years, Eugenio was working with his father, Massimo, and enologist, Cristiano Garella, a northern Piemonte specialist and respected consulting winemaker to get his hand in and now is having more of a influence in the wines to good effect, especially these 2021 and 2022 bottlings. Pastoris got full organic certification back in 2013 and works his vines without tilling the soils and uses very little sulfur in his wines, hoping to show off an authentic sense of place. The Alto Piemonte is one of the hot spots for the wine world these days and producers like this is one of the reasons, and while new to me still, I highly recommend these Pastoris wines.
($32 Est.) 93 Points, grapelive