Passito Monte Sorio 2017

A fundamental figure in the panorama of contemporary artisanal wines, Angiolino Maule has founded VinNatur in 2006 (he is still the president), whose goal is to support the cause of natural wine, i.e., the history and the culture of each specific place, and to respect the social, biological, environmental, and geological values of each region, each farm, each vineyard, the kind of values that are absolutely determinant to create unique and delightful wines. VinNatur is nowadays engaged in research projects with profissional agronomists to find sustainable and biodegradable alternatives to copper and sulphur, elements which are still used even in organic farming, and monitoring to understand the impact that the vineyard management in a particular year has on the wider environment of insects, soil health and spontaneous grasses.

It was not, however, in the field of enology that Angiolino first achieved his notoriety, since he was already showing his talent in the 1970s, running a pizzeria with his wife, Rosamaria. In reality, the net surplus of funds obtained in the pizzeria would later, by the mid 1980s, allow them to buy six hectares of land in Gambellara, in the foothills of Veneto, located at an altitude of 90 – 260 meters above sea level. Beside vines, La Biancara also has a handful of olive trees, as well as a panoply of fruits – figs, apricots, peaches, cherries – that are used to make jam, obviously without sugar. Nowadays Angiolino, both in the vineyards and in the cellar, is flanked by his four sons – Alessandro, Tommaso, Giacomo, and Francesco.

The basic postulate of La Biancara is essentially to make wine without adding or removing anything in the cellar, so that each harvest conveys the singularity of the path fashioned by nature for that specific year – this way each wine that comes from La Biancara truly expresses its unique personality. In order for this stage of biodynamics to be successful, it is necessary that all the actors play their role in the most meticulous way possible: the soil is always in a process of requalification with the sowing of cereals (oat, barley) and legumes (peas, fava beans, clover) in the vineyards; the bunches are criteriously handpicked, and in the cellar fermentation happens spontaneously, always with natural yeasts. The goal in the cellar is to achieve total cleanness, as well as the maximum control of the oxygen and the temperature. Angiolino does not consider himself an extremist – he simply asserts that he is never completely content with what he brings off. So, the search goes on.