La Stoppa "Camporomano" Barbera Emilia 2013

Press 2 • September 2025 Direct Press Selection

La Stoppa is featured prominently in our Emilia-Romagna roundup because of their devoted following and longstanding work as natural wine standard bearers. Though the estate had been around since the late 1800s, the natural wine phase began in earnest  in the late 1990s when owner Elena Pantaleoni and winemaker Giulio Armani ripped out Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Noir, and other vines to focus on historic grapes of Emilia, like Barbera, Bonarda, Ortrugo, Malvasia di Candia, and Trebbiano. Everything has been organic since the late 1990s as well, though they were not certified until 2009.

Possibly more important to La Stoppa's reputation is their commitment to aging. They don't release wines sequentially, so vintages pop up out of order when Elena and Guilio feel they are ready, often five years at minimum. 

Case in point: the Camporomano here is from 2013. 100% Barbera from a single vineyard, it is not made every year. It's destemmed and sees a long 40 day maceration and fermentation in steel. It's aged in Slavonian oak. Zero sulfur is added, and this is possible in part because the pH of the wine is so low that it doesn't complete malolactic transformation. This means the malic acid is retained, keeping it inhospitable for bacteria and other microbes. It also means the wine is surprisingly bracing and vivid even at this stage of its life. You might even forget it is over a decade old. Thick, ripe black cherry, tangy plum, crunchy raspberry, and spicy red pepper flakes. Complex, rich, and superbly singular. We expect nothing less from La Stoppa, and yet each new drop from them seems to surprise us and enamor us even more to their idiosyncratic ways. Jonathan Kemp