SATURDAY 15 JUNE PIAZZA FERRUCCI RADDA IN CHIANTI (SIENA)

On Saturday 15 June at 7.30 pm, in the historic Piazza Ferrucci of Radda in Chianti (Siena), “La Cena” dei Vignaioli di Radda 2024 will take place. The occasion will be the preview presentation of the 2020 vintage of “53017” – the wine of Radda winemakers. The dinner will be accompanied by the most prestigious wines of the 25 members.

Francesco Berardinelli , chef of the ‘Barlèsh’ restaurant in Montevarchi (Arezzo), will sign the menu for this year’s dinner. Barlèsh does ‘Cucina Improvvisa’, shy and spontaneous cuisine, far from fashion, attentive to the traditions of the territory and the people who live it every day.

Francesco Berardinelli does not have a Tuscan accent: his mother is Venetian, his father Molisano. He was born in Piedmont, on Lake Maggiore and arrived in Tuscany with his parents in the seventies. After hotel school he left for New York and went to work at the ‘San Domenico’. Upon returning to Italy, he opened his first restaurant, ‘L’Osteria di Rendola’. The articles arrived, journalists noticed him and his work and in 2000 he opened the second restaurant, ‘Beccofino’ in Florence and with him he landed the cover of ‘Wine Spectator’. From that moment everything changes: chefs arrive from all over the world to taste and discover what Francesco Berardinelli cooks. Heston Blumenthal from London, Ferran Adrià from Spain and Alain Ducasse from Paris. He receives invitations, participates in the most important festivals and cooks everywhere. “I did everything as a chef, I achieved what I wanted and I am now in the right place, what was already in my head, I returned to Barlèsh” says Berardinelli.

The wine of the winemakers of Radda “53017”

One Territory, 25 winemakers, one soul.

25 cellars, 25 lands, 25 shades of Sangiovese from the municipality of Radda in Chianti have given life to a wine of excellence, balanced and representative of the territory.

An iconic bottle, created to express the collaboration between the producers of the Radda Winemakers Association and at the same time promote their bond with the Territory.

To carry out this special project, each “Winemaker” selected and shared 27 liters of their best Sangiovese, considered the main grape variety of Chianti Classico, and combined it with that of the other winemakers to produce the “53017”, the Sangiovese of the Winemakers of Radda. The name of the wine is dedicated to the postal code of Radda in Chianti. A unique project, a blend that then rests in the depths of the cellars of Castello di Albola before seeing the light in the special Magnum bottle format. Each bottle is numbered by hand to enhance its exclusivity and uniqueness.

THE WINEMAKERS OF RADDA

The “Vignaioli di Radda” association has as its main aim the diffusion of the wine culture of Radda in Chianti, developing projects, in-depth meetings and events that support and spread excellent viticulture, with particular attention to organic cultivation and production and biodynamic.

The member companies are (2024):

Arillo in Terrabianca, Borgo la Stella, Borgo Salcetino, Brancaia, Caparsa, Albola Castle, Monterinaldi Castle, Radda Castle, Volpaia Castle, Castelvecchi, Colle Bereto, Cortedomina, Fattoria di Montemaggio, Istine, L’Erta di Radda, Montevertine, Podere Capaccia, Podere Terreno, Poggerino, Pruneto, Tenuta di Carleone, Tenute Selvolini, Val delle Corti, Via L’Inverno, Vignavecchia.

Radici del Sud is an event organized by Propapilla – tourism wine&food, organized this year in collaboration with Assoenologi (National trade organization of technicians in the wine sector), AEPI (Association of Italian Professional Wine Shops), Vinarius (Association of Italian Wine Shops) and AIS Puglia (Italian Sommelier Puglia Association), with the patronage of the Municipality of Sannicandro di Bari and the Puglia Region.

The annual appointment with Radici del Sud will be repeated in June, an event that puts the international spotlight on the wine production of southern Italy, which will end on Monday 10 June in the Castello di Sannicandro di Bari with the XIX edition of the Salone dei vini e oli del Southern Italy and the possibility for sector operators and enthusiasts to access the tasting stands, meet the producers present, from 3.00 pm to 9.00 pm and participate in the great final party from 8.00 pm to 12.00 pm with in tasting of the 90 winning wines of the 2024 edition of the competition and the buffet dinner on the theme “Sustainability on everyone’s lips” .

The protagonists of Radici del Sud will be the wines from native vines of Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia and Sicily , but also the southern oils , and then again the daily work of wineries, oil mills, agri-food producers, cheesemakers, pastry chefs and chefs, with an incredible basket of products that represent the richness and uniqueness of Southern Italy. In fact, the evening tasting tables with the winning wines of the nineteenth edition of the Radici del Sud competition will be accompanied by a buffet dinner with the proposal of sustainable menus, designed according to the principles of healthy eating and with typical local products, curated by chefs and Apulian agri-food producers. Taking care of the dinner will be: Antonio Scalera (La Bul Restaurant – Bari), Giammichele Pagone (Plebiscito 7 – Casamassima), Francesco Racanelli (Panificio Panzone – Sannicandro di Bari), Angelo Di Cecca (Caseificio Dicecca – Altamura) and Francesco Fieschi (Pasticceria Fieschi – Altamura).

The day of June 10th will open in Sannicandro di Bari starting from 11:00 am with a moment of in-depth analysis in the opening conference on the topics: “New cultivation techniques to protect vineyards from climatic unpredictability”, “Personalizing events trade fairs to generate more advantages and usefulness for the producer, the territory and the production” and “New tourist routes, new markets, new consumption: who are the main consumers of Southern wine?”. This will be followed by the award ceremony of all the winning wines of the nineteenth edition of the Radici del Sud competition.

Alta Langa DOCG arrives in the capital with a great tasting on Monday 17 June, from 10.30 to 17.30 in the setting of Palazzo Brancaccio (Viale del Monte Oppio 7 Rome).

Alta Langa DOCG arrives in the capital with a great tasting on Monday 17 June, from 10.30 to 17.30 in the setting of Palazzo Brancaccio (Viale del Monte Oppio 7 Rome).

Together with 27 other producers of Alte Bollicine Piemontesi, Cocchi will be present at the Alta Langa Consortium event, Alta Langa Roma , in the Sala di Gala , desk number 9, and will bring for tasting:

• Alta Langa Extra Brut Organic vintage 2019
• Alta Langa Bianc ‘d Bianc brut vintage 2018
• Alta Langa Pas Dosé vintage 2018

The event is reserved for a professional audience (journalists, buyers, wine sellers, HoReCa). Access is free and requires registration at this link.

Cocchi and Alta Langa DOCG

In Cocchi’s tastings, great aging wines are tasted, often true challenges to time, the result of centuries-old savoir faire , respect for the method, the irreplaceable value of history, the search for excellence and profound respect for a territory unique and yet to be discovered, that of the high lands of the Langa. Cocchi was among the promoters, already at the end of the last century, of that “Gentlemen’s Agreement” which contributed to making the denomination so appreciated in Piedmont: an agreement that recognizes the role of winegrowing families as custodians of traditions and guardians of the territory. From local winemakers, who thus remain owners of their lands, Cocchi continues to purchase grapes, honoring that same agreement more than two decades later.

Cocchi’s Alta Langa DOCG is recognizable for a perfectly structured style, elegant and at the same time vibrant, of great freshness, where the Pinot wines with long aging on the yeasts and a minimum dosage of sugars are the protagonists. Like the Pinots, Cocchi’s Chardonnays also see only steel and glass and express the purity of the vine with a contemporary, rigorous and seductive imprint.

Cocchi was the first winery ever to offer an Alta Langa wine made exclusively from Chardonnay grapes ( Bianc ‘d Bianc , first vintage 2000), the first to offer a rosé wine ( Rösa , first vintage 2000) and, in 2019, even the first to launch a Grappa di Alta Langa .

The new Alta Langa Extra Brut Biologico vintage 2019 by Cocchi

In Rome it will be possible to taste, together with the Bianc ‘d Bianc Cocchi classic method Alta Langa DOCG vintage 2018 and the Pas Dosé Cocchi classic method Alta Langa DOCG vintage 2018 , the new Organic Extra Brut vintage 2019 .

This new cuvée comes from blended organic grapes (50% Pinot Noir and 50% Chardonnay). Grown on the same soil and in the same plot, the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for the Alta Langa DOCG Extra Brut Biologico 2019 originate in a single vineyard from the Monforte d’Alba area, where factors such as the white soils, the calcareous soils and dry, mainly marly, the exposure to the west, the altitude, cooperate to express a particularly healthy fruit.

“ We created this cuvée to research the adaptability of the Alta Langa denomination territory to organic cultivation and to identify an area more suited to this choice. The vineyard from which this cuvée comes has proven to be suitable for producing quality grapes, albeit with reduced quantities ” explained Giulio Bava, Cocchi’s winemaker.

The Cocchi style, even before it is in the glass, can already be recognized in the winemaking: the pressing of the grapes and the fermentation of the different fractions takes place separately for the two varieties in steel vats without the use of wood. The formation of the final batch takes into account only the best fermented and cold-decanted fractions, without the aid of fining agents.

The draft of the bottles being tasted, which took place on 22 May 2020, is the bottling phase of the base wine to which sugar and organic yeasts are added, responsible for the second fermentation, which lasted a month and a half.

The slow cycle of maturation on the yeasts and refinement of this special organic cuvée continued until the disgorgement of the batch, which took place 46 months later: 19 March 2024.

This sparkling wine, among the first organic of the denomination, is an extra brut, without further added sugars. Of the 2019 vintage, 12,700 bottles were produced.

Giulio Bava continues: “The Alta Langa DOCG Extra Brut Biologico 2019 is a new bet on a denomination in which we have believed and invested since the beginning, and which we have supported with energy.

Cocchi’s long history is studded with important records within the appellation: Cocchi was among the first producers to believe in Alte Piedmontese bubbles, so much so that today, in our archives, two entire decades of magnums are preserved for tasting, since “Alta Langa” was little more than a dream, a project and a brand, not yet a denomination” .

“ Even today, for Cocchi, full fidelity to the denomination, perfect compliance with a particularly rigorous specification, which allows the production of only vintage wines, that is, the expression of a single harvest which is reported on the label, is a point of pride; a specification that requires no less than 30 months of aging for this classic method, and Cocchi does even more, coming onto the market with cuvées that have rested on the yeasts for at least an extra year, beyond the 30 months expected, as happens today with this organic cuvée, 46 months on the yeasts ”.

TASTING NOTES

Clear and crystalline in its straw color with greenish reflections. Very delicate and fine initial olfactory impact. Floral of yarrow and hawthorn. Riper hints of broom/acacia then leave room for fresh lemon, grapefruit and pomelo juices. Sensations that leave the mouth clean and clear without giving bitterness. Light limestone flavor and white pepper accompany the finish of Mediterranean herbs and nori seaweed, giving smoothness and pleasantness to the sip.