Details
MIRCO MARIOTTI - SMARAZEN PET NAT 2020
TASTING NOTES
Mirco Marriotti's gentle sparkling Pet Nat's are a revelation balancing complexity and non fussed drinking from the region of Italy that knows how to do fizz, Emilia Romagna.
VINTAGE 2020
ORIGIN Emilia-Romagna, Italy
MAKER Mirco Mariotti
GRAPES 70% Trebbiano, 30% Malvasia
ABOUT
The harvest is strictly carried out by hand and it normally takes place during the first decade of September; grapes are picked and softly pressed simultaneously. The fermentation lasts about two weeks and it is done at a low temperature in order to obtain more elegant aromas. The wine is kept in cement tanks for 60 days until the primary fermentation. The secondary fermentation takes place in the bottle (Champenoise method), without racking off the lees. Bottle aging for some months, prior to the selling of the product.
Mirco Mariotti makes wines in the Bosco Eliceo area in the eastern part of Emilia-Romagna, from vines growing just 300 meters from the Adriatic sea and over 100 years old. The vines are non-grafted on their own native rootstock, with roots that dig as deep as two meters in the sandy soil. He uses the process of propaggine, a type of selezione massale, for new vines. They are gnarly. And, by growing vines so close to the beach, that savory, even salty mouthfeel, really come through. Mariotti is an excellent example of a producer who is making more interesting wines than a generation ago.
Mariotti’s wines are named after local card games that the locals play in towns while splashing back frizzante of local varietals. Old-school bottle-fermented (rifermentato in bottiglia) wines out of the native grapes Trebbiano Romagnolo, and a rare red called Fortana – a savoury wild thing with high acid and a black cherry or wild strawberry notes depending on vintage; sometimes a bitter vermouth-like spice to it.
