Ca de Noci 'Le Rose' Bianco Frizzante Emilia 2021

Press 2 • August 2023 Direct Press Selection

Natural wine would not be where it is today without people willing to go against the grain back when there were few other people to provide examples. Brothers Giovanni and Alberto Masini were truly outliers back in 1993. "We have not been influenced by people but by the call of nature, which demanded respect; and by society, which demanded a revolution to react to the wine industry," Giovanni explained to me. "The birth of mass production social cooperatives in 1900 made it possible to transform this region. The families that made wine began to sell the grapes to the large wineries to lower production costs—but this began a continuous decline in the quality of the wines, and it risked extinguishing the families that made wine." It also risked extinguishing the nearly 100 autochthonous grape varieties in the region, and the Masini brothers have worked hard to keep some of these alive: Spergola, Malbo Gentile, Montericco, and others that few have ever heard of.

‘Le Rose,’ is an orange frizzante wine made from Malvasia di Candia, not an obscure grape but a fabulously delicious one. There is a very short skin maceration and the wine undergoes a secondary fermentation kicked off with the same vintage's grape must to give it some mild bubbles. It is certainly floral due to the Malvasia, but this is matched with funky Saison notes and lots of texture to sink your teeth into. It's an ethereal, joyful wine that feels truly original. According to Giovanni, their wines "have very original tastes because they do not come from crossings with international varieties but were born and cultivated only here. In the glass you can also feel more because the fermentations are made with yeasts indigenous grown from our countryside." As for food pairings? "Le Rose is very fond of young Parmigiano Reggiano but also of Pancetta," says Giovanni. Jonathan Kemp