Author: Dirk Chan
Drove a couple of hours from Salerno to the Grifalco estate in Basilicata where I was greeted by winemaker and owner Lorenzo Piccin. He is only 30 years old and his first vintage was when he was 22 years of old – how novel is that?
His parents originally had property in Montepulciano, but in 2003 they sold and purchase Grifalco in Vulture. The name Grifalco pays hommage to the past and present – the Gryphon is the symbol of Montepulciano, and the ‘falco’ part is the hawk, symbol of Monte Vulture, the now extinct volcano.
They only make 5 wines and 2500 cases total production (love these small family-ran wineries, they do everything end to end), but there are 80 year old vines available to Lorenzo and he separately ferments and stores the wines in large barrels and only blends them together just before bottling. Vines are replanted only when they die by stealing a branch from existing old vines.
He tasted me only out of barrel – such wonderful organically farmed sites in Damaschito and Daginestra, are vinifed and stored separately – we got to taste the different characteristics that is to go in the final mix of the 2016 and 2017 Grifalco’s, their flagship wine. The former was very floral and the latter the minerality and rusticity while a third barrel came from two other estates in the Vulture area that definitely provided the structure and color – brutes!
Lorenzo also passed on that the great wines must come from the middle parts of the vineyards, between 450 and 580 meters in elevation – if higher it will be unripe, if lower than that range, it will be flabby due to the high heat. He also stressed that he will never blend international grapes (like Merlot) into his wines, he is true to his roots – the Aglianico grape is the only one he’ll work with. He learnt his craft in the Piedmont, and is trying the extended maceration techniques so prevalent there with his grapes.
Other tidbits I got was he loves his very flexible grape sorter (see pic), he loves X-country skiing with his dog.
Next up, Mastroberardino…
2014 Grifalco Aglianico del Vulture (Basilicata, Italy) – $26.99
A link to the previous travel blog here..
Many thanks to Bonvida Wines for setting me up with this visit!