Wine Region: Verona

(2019) Small production from a single vineyard at 400 metres with clay-rich soils, the vines 100% pergola-grown, with average age of around 45 years - some 60 years old. A really bright, almost rhubarb touch to very sweet cherry fruit, touches of tobacco and dried rosemary perhaps, very aromatic. The palate has masses of deep, sweet fruit, with definite sweetness here, and although there are dried cherry and raisin flavours, there is no hint of oxidation or overripeness really: just an intensity into a long, smooth and sweet finish. This should have considerable ageing potential too.

(2019) From a windy vineyard and 100% limestone and rocky white soil. Dried herbs and a more austere nose, taut and dusty aromatics, immediately appears more serious than the Campolongo, with a dried herbal character. The palate too has a drier character - I suspect a little drier technically, but the profile so different, so much tighter and higher in acidity, tight tannins and a graphite sense of precision to this. Long too and finishing with great fruit concentration, it has fine length and I suspect needs more time when it may well merit a higher score too.

(2019) Beautiful, resolved nose, a touch of delightful oxidation, coffee and chocolate but still that cherry ripe red fruit clarity. In the mouth it is silky and dense, a flood of quite meaty and fleshy black fruit, super ripe tannins and lovely plum and cherry skin acidity giving length. A beautifully resolved and complete wine.

(2019) Similar grape blend as the regular Costasera, from the same vineyard, but has 10% Oseleta. Appassimento never less than 120 days. The Oselleta has a real impact again, giving, like the Toar and pure Oselleta also tasted, a firm, graphite character, tightening up the picture, and the ripe cherry and florals just showing throug beautifully. The beautiful sweetness of the fruit here is all-encompassing, with a salty touch to the acidity, such ripe chocolaty tannins and fabulous length: fruit, elegance, touches of cocoa and spices, but all about freshness and tang.

(2019) Harvested in separate tries between the 13th and 29th of September, two barriques of this wine were fermented with indigenous yeast, with zero sulphur added to the must. The ripest batches were destemmed and macerated with their skins for six days in stainless steel tanks before being put in to barriques to continue with spontaneous fermentation, again without added sulphur. Lightly cloudy and golden/straw in colour, the wine has a fine, yeasty and lightly earthy character, a hint of vanilla and ripe orchard fruit, a herbal, lifted quality too. It reminds me immediately of a Chardonnay from the Jura, with a vin jaune-like quality, very natural in feel. In the mouth copious sweet fruit, a touch of tobacco and plenty of lemon peel that is fat and waxy, but fresh in character. The wine has terrific length, the sweet, ripe and quite luscious fruit always edged with spices and a bready, yeasty and almond richness, the finish long and tapering beautifully to an elegant, fruit-driven finish.

(2019) A fascinating wine all-round, made from late-harvested, over-mature, Chardonnay grapes, made with just a short period in barrels to preserve its floral and tropical fruit notes. It pours a glowing golden yellow and opens with creamy, buttery, and like the dry white wine, slightly oxidative notes that only serve to add intrigue. It is undoubtedly sweet, but a tempered sweetness of 36g/l, but again caught up in the buttery and nutty, natural-feeling light oxidation. Mouth-filling and chewy, yet the sweetness is there, and a balancing, freshening acidity, in a wine that continues to intrigue until the last mouthful. Cascina Eugenia recommend decanting for 10 hours before serving. 623 bottles produced.

(2018) Only 4,500 bottles of this 'experimental' wine were produced, blending the local Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella with Syrah, in an appassimento style, with partially dried grapes. Dark and dense in colour, there's a vibrancy and juiciness to the fruit on the nose, slightly dusty plum and cherry, but vital and concentrated, the Syrah perhaps adding a touch of that sizzling bacon fat character. In the mouth the Syrah is there, a ripe black fruit at the core of this, powerful, long, with a liquorice twist to the tannins and acidity.

(2012) This sparkling wine from Verona in the northwest of Italy is 100% Pinot Noir and is all about freshness and crispness with the emphasis on fruity and floral character. It has a delightful Provençal pale colour, and the nose is extremely delicate with rose hip and light raspberry. The palate is keen and racy, with a running water clarity to the acidity that makes this quite classy stuff, I guess made in the local Prosecco style and deliciously so.