Quel Cepage

Cloudy deep red, canned tobacco. Noticeable frizzante, tight pink head. Black cherry cola. Thickness, creamy mouthfeel. Tight CO2 and lingering lactic acids. Some black olives, gorgeous sour spins, chasing its own earthy tail, tannins buried in depth, carbonic bite, like a whirling beach ball, pinwheels of flavors.

The back label says Venti Quattrodici. Which we all know means drinking a Venti Latte in your Audi is dicey. Or something. Since it's a labeled simply as Rosso, it doesn't get a vintage. The back label names it "Twenty Fourteen".

Barbera, Bonarda, and "some other" red grapes in sandy clayey Pliocene soil. Croatina is typical. Hand picked in small boxes, crushed and macerated without temperature control for up to two weeks. Spontaneous fermentation, and left on the lees over the winter.

In the spring, the wine is bottled dry, but without sulphur or fining, leaving a touch of life to mature over another year. This results in just a zing of bottle fermentation to balance the ripe fruits, pretty acids, and earthy tannins.

Montesissa Emilio has been making wine in for three generations in Emilia-Romagna, overlooking the Po river valley.