Soldano, Dolceacqua, Liguria
Maurizio Anfosso and Roberta Repaci farm 7 hectares (17 acres) of the just 81 hectares (200 acres) that make up the Rossese di Dolceacqua DOC. The nearest village is Soldano, a tiny place that, like so many towns in Italy, boasts its own unique dialect. The couple live on a mountain across the valley from thier vineyards, a valley that points to the shining sea just after the mountains fall away. This means that Maurizio and Roberta enjoy the vista of their vineyards from their house. It also means that the trip from the vineyards to the winery, so close as the crow flies, requires endless truck trips up and down two steep and winding mountain roads.
Those roads feel nearly as gnarled as the Beragna vineyard’s ancient vines, planted on their own rootstocks in 1872. Both Ka' Manciné vineyards are steeply terraced on marly schist soils, at about 400 meters elevation. The Galeae vineyard, a breathtaking natural amphitheatre, was replanted by Maurizio in 1999: he used massal selection to replicate the ancient Beragna vineyard. The wine from the Beragna plot is slightly lighter, expressing incredible mineral and savory notes, and the Galeae, which contains a little more organic matter to exposed rock, is more supple, with some delicious fruit.
Maurizio’s devotion to the Rossese makes him an expert on the obscure grape. His white wine, produced in tiny quantities, blends Vermentino with the even more obscure Tabacca. He is also an artist who draws abstract portraits of his family members on each of his fermentation tanks. These wines are a rare treasure, and Rossese itself is increasingly recognized as a culinary revelation for food pairings.