Maria Ernesta Berucci 'Raphaël' Rosato del Frusinate 2022
Location: Italy, Lazio
Winemaker: Maria Ernesta Berucci
Grapes: Cesanese di Affile
Winemaking: Skin contact for 1 night. Spontaneous fermentation and aging in concrete vats.
From the Importer Louis/Dressner: Maria Ernesta Berucci is a young woman from the gorgeous Hernican town of Piglio, about an hour southeast of Rome at the foot of the Apennine mountains.Vines have always been in her father's family, the Massimi Berucci, and at one time her father Manfredi owned as much as 30 hectares. Manfredi was the head of the Cantina Cooperativa di Pigliofrom the early 1960's up until 1972. In 2004, he created a new entity called Emme and almost all of the family vines transferred to this group with the exception of a beautiful, 1.5 hectarevineyard of more than 50-year-old vines, grown in pergola adjacent to their home in the countryside of Colli Santi (holy hills).
In 2009, Maria and her brother decided it was time to revive the family's roots and produced a wine from this vineyard site called "l'Onda" (the wave) as it announced the next wave of winemakers in the Massimi family. Slowly they have been recuperating some of the family's historic parcels and renting other quality sites. Berucci is looking especially for old vinesplanted in Cesanese di affile, a strainwhich produces a noticeably smaller, less compact bunches than the vine known as Cesanese Commune. They now are working 2.5 hectares of vines.
The Berrucis also run an agriturismo in the heart of Piglio's medieval old city. Maria's mother, who is from Montenegro, is the chef and her food is delicious. Her father, a true country poet and raconteur, entertains guests with stories of local history, folklore and the vines. His knowledge of the area and it's viticulturalhistory is remarkable.
The Cesanese del Piglo DOC was conferred in 1973 and it is considered one of the legendary grapes of central Italy, capable of making very tasty, long-lived and versatile wines. It was elevated to DOCG status more recently. The soils in the delineated area are rocky limestone with a good deal of clay. Most vineyards are on gently rising hilltops. And most all the old vines are trained in pergola.
Maria, with the help of her fiancé Giminiano Montecchi, is converting all the vineyards to organics and together they are practicing an agro-homeopathy akin to biodynamics. The purpose is to allow the vines to ward off any maladies themselves. They had been using space at the local cooperative to vinify the wines, but have since constructed their own winery.