Muni di Daniele Piccinin

Winemaker: Daniele Piccinin

Country: Italy

Region: Veneto | Lessinia

In the hamlet of Muni in the Alpone Valley of the Venetian (Lessini) Prealps, Daniele Piccinin works 7 hectares of vines on chalky, calcareous soils 300 to 500 meters above sea level, with a south/south-eastern exposure.

Daniele left his career as a chef to study and make wine with Angiolino Maule in 2006. He made his first wines with Angiolino using purchased grapes before moving to nearby Muni in 2009 to make his first vintage.

Muni is situated just north of Soave and just east of Valpolicella. Here, Daniele devotes most of his energies to the cultivation of Durella. This is a native grape, named (according to one theory) for its acidity (“duro” meaning hard).

Durella grapes grown on these chalky soils—to an even greater extent than those on the volcanic soils elsewhere in Lessinia—produce wines with particularly high acidity and flavors of fresh green apples and citrus.

The terrain is steep and the work in the vineyard must be done manually; however, considering Daniele is the Vice President of VinNatur—an association that requires manual harvesting—the land is not the constraint, but the beneficiary. Through meticulous observation of his territory, Daniele has refined his practice so that a primary aim is the betterment of the entire ecological reality. “Wine production for its own sake,” he says, “is something that never interested us.” Rather, Daniele seeks to center the vineyard as a complex ecosystem through a careful and constant study of the plant and animal life that occurs there.

“I immediately adopted a natural approach to viticulture, motivated by the belief that the land of my ancestors was perfect for the type of project I had in mind, pushing me to bet on it.

In this view we allow everything to flower as much as possible which attracts wildlife, we try to create a habitat inside the vineyard favorable to life. If you think that in a living soil there are 35 quintals (3500 kg) of earthworms per hectare; sometimes this is more than the grape production itself. Imagine the work they can do together in just one night.

We are firmly convinced that to have a harmonious vineyard it is necessary to surpass the concept of monoculture as much as possible. In order to guarantee a certain biodiversity, since the beginning we have multiplied the Durella vine from a massale selection of an old vineyard.

...

There are a thousand ways to transform this fruit into wine, we have chosen the more human path with the least intervention possible! We leave enough space in the winemaking process, so that variety and soil can be expressed in a defined way. We want the minerality to reflect the vitality of the soil, so that it can be found clearly in our wines.

I consider myself a lucky man as I am able to make a living doing what I love. Being able to transform passionately a bunch of grapes into wine is truly a gesture of love.”

 

Wines


In Der Eben

Winemaker: Urban Plattner

Country: Italy

Region: Sudtirol (Alto Adige)

Website: https://www.indereben.com/

At the southern entrance of the Eistacktal (Isarco Valley), winemaker Urban Plattner biodynamically farms 3.5 hectares situated in the St Magdalena growing area. Perched on warm porphyry soils between 450-500 meters of elevation with southern exposure, the inner-alpine vineyards themselves are relatively flat, natural moraine terraces surrounded by forests. The name In Der Eben—which translates to “in the plain”—refers to this counterintuitive flat space up on the Ritten slopes above the Eisack just outside of Bozen (Bolzano).

The climate is Alpine-continental with warm days and cool nights. The Ritten slopes are near enough to the Adige to be influenced by the warm winds that come from the south which create ideal growing conditions for Urban’s native Vernatsch (Schiava) and Roter Malvasier vines.

Of the 3.5 total hectares, nearly half are devoted to Vernatsch (Schiava), an extremely important grape to the region and to Urban. Near the house and cellar, at 450 meters, the Vernatsch is trained—as is typical—on old pergolas. The Gewürztraminer and Sauvignon vineyards are planted a half-kilometer up the slope where the morning air is much cooler. As a result, these varieties express the alpine freshness the region’s white wines are best known for.

The smallest plots are the Freistil vineyard—a single vineyard co-planted with Merlot, Lagrein, and Teroldego—and a miniscule site directly in front of the house devoted to the rare, autochthonous Roter Malvasier. Urban’s Roter Malvasier is the last monovarietal wine made from this very old local variety.

Urban Plattner’s father, Johannes, was an early pioneer of organic viticulture in Alto Adige. He began the conversion to organic farming in 1990 when it was hardly marketable to do so. When Urban took over in 2014, he took the next step and began biodynamic management in the vineyards and cellar.

 

Wines


BioWeingut Karl Renner

Winemaker: Karl Renner

Country: Austria

Region: Sudsteiermark

Website: https://www.weingutrenner.at/

A friend in Südtirol tipped me off to Karl Renner’s quiet presence in the heart of Südsteiermark in May of 2022. A few months later, I made it to Austria to learn more. On 6 hectares, cultivated organically, Karl has been slowly working to create as sustainable a winemaking practice as possible working with both traditional (vinifera) and hybrid varieties.

At the heart of Karl Renner's winemaking philosophy is a respect for the land and territory. Südsteiermark's exceptional opok soil, a calcareous sedimentary rock formed by marine and river deposits (clay and silt), plays a pivotal role in shaping the distinctive flavor profile of the wines. With its high clay content, the opok soil excels at absorbing warmth, providing optimal ripening conditions for the grapes, and contributing to the wines' complexity.

To further his sustainable approach, Karl champions the use of PIWI varieties— hybrids of vitis vinifera vines with non-vinifera vines from the Americas and Asia. These varieties require significantly fewer vineyard treatments than their traditional vinifera counterparts, sometimes none at all. 

This approach allows for a harmonious connection—by way of parentage—to the traditional grape varieties of the region, while allowing for more sustainable vineyard management practices. The resulting wines showcase a vibrant profile that compliments the terroir in a way I’ve seldom seen in their traditional vinifera counterparts.

I won’t make a claim to causality, but when a plant flourishes naturally in a given setting, it seems unsurprising to find the characteristics of that setting so deeply imbued in the fruit. These are wines with focus and energy—new wines that allow for a new way of understanding this perpetually significant piece of wine geography.

Wines