L’Azienda Patrizia Wines- Mango, Piemonte, Italy
Let’s face it: we all know, and love, fine Moscato d’Asti with its low alcohol, its sensuous sweetness matched with bracing acidity, its gorgeous mousse of fair bubbles, its freshness and its sense of fun. When one meets Patrizia, one experiences a parallel sense of sweetness, bubbles, frivolity, and (down deep) a serious side similar to what one will experience when tasting her unbelievably fresh and beautiful Moscato. Yet meeting Patrizia does not go far enough to explain these superb wines. In order to get the full picture, one must walk in the vineyards, so steep that every springtime poses a risk of a small or large landslide that could take out part or all of these gorgeous old (up to 50 years old) vines.
Mango resides in the Langhe at 520 meters or so, east of the town of Barbaresco. This is about the altitudinal limit of where it is possible to grow quality grapes here in the Langhe - higher and it’s better to grow Hazelnuts. Two separate farms on nearby plots of land give Patrizia about 14 or 15 Hectares of Moscato with which to work (she also grows a bit of Barbera, of course) all on vineyards 15 to 50 years old, and all hand harvested (the fantastic steepness poses an impossibility for tractors). Every spring, the rain brings down stones (if it doesn’t bring down the entire hillside), which must be carefully moved back up-hill. Vineyard practices are essentially organic, even if they are not certified. No chemicals are used in the vineyard.
Patrizia fashions about 60,000 bottles of fine Moscato from her steep old vineyards. Our good friend Fabio Oberto, one of the great Barolo producers in nearby La Morra, told us about Patrizia. Moscato d’Asti that the top Barolo winemakers drink: now that is something.
Patrizia Moscato is possibly the freshest, cleanest, most balanced Moscato I’ve ever tasted. Here’s why: Patrizia harvests Moscato grapes that are ripe but not over-ripe, naturally low yielding thanks to their advanced age, and that have had every opportunity to balance out sweetness with acidity due to the elevation and steepness of the vineyards. But there are a couple of other reasons. One is that Patrizia keeps the must chilled at 0ºC until it is time to do another bottling - and only then will she initiate the fermentation by bringing the temperature up to 18ºC, ferment to 4.5º alcohol, then stop the fermentation with another 0º chill, and trap the carbon dioxide with the Autoclave. She does this 13 TIMES PER YEAR - roughly 11 times more than her competitors. The multiple bottlings ensure the very freshest Moscato on the market. Another reason? Less than one-half the sulfur normally used in Moscato production (“so little sulfites and so little alcohol even a baby can drink it!”, she enthuses).
Let’s face it: we all know, and love, fine Moscato d’Asti with its low alcohol, its sensuous sweetness matched with bracing acidity, its gorgeous mousse of fair bubbles, its freshness and its sense of fun. When one meets Patrizia, one experiences a parallel sense of sweetness, bubbles, frivolity, and (down deep) a serious side similar to what one will experience when tasting her unbelievably fresh and beautiful Moscato. Yet meeting Patrizia does not go far enough to explain these superb wines. In order to get the full picture, one must walk in the vineyards, so steep that every springtime poses a risk of a small or large landslide that could take out part or all of these gorgeous old (up to 50 years old) vines.
Mango resides in the Langhe at 520 meters or so, east of the town of Barbaresco. This is about the altitudinal limit of where it is possible to grow quality grapes here in the Langhe - higher and it’s better to grow Hazelnuts. Two separate farms on nearby plots of land give Patrizia about 14 or 15 Hectares of Moscato with which to work (she also grows a bit of Barbera, of course) all on vineyards 15 to 50 years old, and all hand harvested (the fantastic steepness poses an impossibility for tractors). Every spring, the rain brings down stones (if it doesn’t bring down the entire hillside), which must be carefully moved back up-hill. Vineyard practices are essentially organic, even if they are not certified. No chemicals are used in the vineyard.
Patrizia fashions about 60,000 bottles of fine Moscato from her steep old vineyards. Our good friend Fabio Oberto, one of the great Barolo producers in nearby La Morra, told us about Patrizia. Moscato d’Asti that the top Barolo winemakers drink: now that is something.
Patrizia Moscato is possibly the freshest, cleanest, most balanced Moscato I’ve ever tasted. Here’s why: Patrizia harvests Moscato grapes that are ripe but not over-ripe, naturally low yielding thanks to their advanced age, and that have had every opportunity to balance out sweetness with acidity due to the elevation and steepness of the vineyards. But there are a couple of other reasons. One is that Patrizia keeps the must chilled at 0ºC until it is time to do another bottling - and only then will she initiate the fermentation by bringing the temperature up to 18ºC, ferment to 4.5º alcohol, then stop the fermentation with another 0º chill, and trap the carbon dioxide with the Autoclave. She does this 13 TIMES PER YEAR - roughly 11 times more than her competitors. The multiple bottlings ensure the very freshest Moscato on the market. Another reason? Less than one-half the sulfur normally used in Moscato production (“so little sulfites and so little alcohol even a baby can drink it!”, she enthuses).
