Villa Cialdini Pignoletto Brut

Villa Cialdini is the main house of the Azienda Agricola Castelvetro, an estate south-east of Modena that has been owned by the Chiarli family since 1860. Brothers Anselmo and Mauro Chiarli, who manage the family company, started the Castelvetro project in 2002. Their idea – ambitious today, let alone in 2002 – was to build a state-of-the-art winery to produce top quality Lambrusco. They spent a year renovating the winery and then, using the property’s old vineyards, began production in 2003.

The estate comprises 70 hectares, of which 52 are vineyards on the undulating alluvial deposits typical of the Padana plain. The main grape variety planted here is Grasparossa, the lower yielding and most concentrated clone of Lambrusco. The resulting Lambrusco is deeply coloured, frothing, dry and structured, while retaining the typical pronounced fruitiness cut by lovely acidity that has made Lambrusco such a mainstay of the restaurants of Modena and Bologna.

From the same vineyards comes the local sparkling white, Pignoletto, an ancient grape variety from Emilia, also known as Grechetto Gentile. This variety produces a fruity and extremely refreshing sparkling wine. Both these wines come with very smart packaging and unrivalled quality for this style of wine.

Pignoletto,

The Pignoletto vines are cultivated on the hills between Modena and Bologna. The 7 hectares vineyards are located at an altitude up to 200 metres above sea level, in optimum conditions to produce a white wine with a delicate nose and good structure. The gradual slopes are formed of clay and calcareous soil with a slightly alkaline pH. The clones are obtained from a mass selection of the company’s ancient vineyards; these are traceable back to the Grechetto Gentile varietal which was introduced in the area around 1400 AD. The vines are 12 years old planted at a density of 4,000 vines/ha. They are trained to Geneva double curtain.

The grapes were harvested both by hand and machine, then immediately crushed and destemmed. Only the freshest must was selected, clarified and cold-stabilized immediately after harvest. Maceration lasted a few hours at controlled temperatures. The first and only fermentation occurred at controlled temperatures and with selected yeasts in stainless steel Charmat tanks.

This wine is straw yellow in colour with youthful highlights. There are distinctive aromas of pear and white flowers, enhanced by the wine's fine and persistent bubbles. It has a bright acidity on the palate with a characteristically refreshing, fruity finish.