Santa Lucia is a small town next to Faenza on the Romagna side of Emilia-Romagna. The soft rolling hills become the mountains of the Appennines and it is here that a revival is occurring. Indigneous, heritage varietals are being rediscovered and revived
Claudio is most often found in the vineyards he inherited from his grandfather. As taught by his grandfather and father, he is a non-interventionist utilizing only indigenous varietals, organic grapes manually picked, native yeast,no manipulation of any kind, no new oak barrels - stainless or cement instead.
And as a result his wines are intense, true to their place! The soils here are a combination of clay, lime & sand which give the grapes and resulting wine a pureness of flavor and a perfect balance of freshness, acidity & tannin. These wines are truly representative of the terroir - a chance to taste the place in a glass....drinkability, structure, and elegance abound!
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Albana is an “autochthonous” grape that can be traced back to the 1300's. An autochthonous grape is one that grows exclusively, or almost exclusively, in one region. As an example, Cabernet is grown nearly everywhere whereas Albana is (mostly) only grown in Romagna. According to wikipedia, it was in the 13th century that Pier de' Crescenzi wrote his famous Treatise on Agriculture and described Albana as "a powerful wine with an axcellent taste, but at the same time easy to be preserved".
Famoso (Uva Rambela) is a native grape from Romagna first mentioned in 1437 but abandoned in the 1900's for being too floral for the time. In fact, it was thought to be extinct until 2 rows were spotted in Forli in 2000. Thank goodness! this indigenous varietal is being revived by a small group of vignerons who believe that this grape possess a biodiversity that should not be lost.
Centesimino (Savignon Rosso) was thought to be a lost varietal until 1960(something) when vines were discovered in the walled off garden of a gardner named Pietro Pianori. He had saved it (and many other plants) during phylloxera and is now thought to be one of the few ungrafted vinifera vines left on this planet. All Centesimino vines are descended from the cuttings in that walled garden.
