Campill 2018

A red wine that puts freshness before power. In the glass, a pale, muted garnet red with violet highlights toward the rim; on the nose, earthy notes of tree bark, cigar smoke and beetroot at first. With air, dark, tart fruits emerge: sloe, mulberry and dark plum compote, alongside rosemary and thyme.

The vines grow on very steep terrain above Bolzano, on the Kohlerer Berg and on the Ritten plateau. Northwest exposure, shading forests and cool downslope winds slow ripening. The subsoil consists of loamy sand of volcanic origin with morainic deposits of porphyry, basalt and granite, deep and well-draining.

Vernatsch trained in the traditional South Tyrolean pergola system. Martin and Marion have farmed biodynamically since 2009 on just under four hectares, working the steep sites without tractors; eight Breton Ouessant dwarf sheep keep the grass between the vines short. After hand-harvesting, the grapes were crushed and fermented spontaneously with 80% whole clusters in wooden fermenters, without temperature control. Fermentation, including cold maceration, took five months, after which the wine aged for 12 months in wooden fermenters and oval casks, plus 10 months in concrete and oval casks. It was hand-bottled without fining or filtration.

Fine tannins meet lively acidity, with a fruit profile leaning toward red berries. The moderate 12.0% vol. keeps the wine lean and dry; served lightly chilled, its drinkability shows best.

A companion for hearty cooking: chestnut gnocchi with mushroom ragout, brook char cooked on fir branches with speck and radicchio, or veal fillet braised in mountain herb tea.

The name is a comment on wine law: because the wine contains no Cabernet varieties, the historic vineyard name may not be spelled out in full, so the label reads Ca___l.