Maria Ernesta Berucci Passerina+ 2024

Profile & Story

Maria Ernesta Berucci farms about two hectares at Piglio, in the Frosinone province of Lazio, on land long held by her father's family, the Massimi Berucci; her first label, 'Onda', appeared in 2009. Working with Geminiano Montecchi, she goes beyond organic protocol, managing the vital processes of the vines through self-produced homeopathic treatments, reproducing native microorganisms for soil fertility and doing the vineyard work by hand. In the cellar fermentations are spontaneous, with no added yeasts, adjuvants or sulphites, in raw concrete, amphora and large wood. The skin-contact Passerina del Frusinate IGT, bottled by the estate as 'Raphael', is Passerina with small amounts of the old local varieties Ottonese and Malvasia, grown on silty-sandy soils of iron oxide and manganese over limestone, macerated 36 hours on the skins, vinified and aged in concrete and left unfiltered, at 11.5-12% alcohol. The US importer describes the same wine as roughly 70% Passerina and 30% Trebbiano with a very short skin contact.