RENATO and EZIO TRINCHERO, Agliano Terme Organic!
This old winery in Agliano Terme is situated in Vianoce, an ancient-hamlet including a peasant house and a church. It was built during the first half of the 19th century by the Visconti Barons of Ornavasso, then, at the beginning of the 1920s, it was bought by brothers Secondo and Serafino Trinchero. They have since passed on the reigns to their sons, Renato and Ezio Trinchero.
Specializing in Barbera, the cousins Trinchero now make one of the longest-lived and most profound examples of Barbera to be found in all of Italy. The Trinchero family believes that the underrated Barbera grape is a variety capable of producing wines of profound complexity and serious longevity, if cultivated from old vines in top sites and vinified to allow graceful evolution in bottle. With this in mind, the Trincheros farm all of their vines organically and are extremely meticulous with their viticulture. Ezio Trinchero is a close friend of Giampiero Bea of Paolo Bea in Montefalco, and the wines of both estates share a similar style and rustic soulfulness.
The Barbera d’Asti Superiore bottling hails from twenty year-old vines and is made to be drunk on the young side. It is fermented in cement tanks, aged for twelve months in old oak botti and then bottled. It is always complex and well-balanced and offers up immediate accessibility and appeal. Occasionally there is also a small bit of the traditional varietal of Grignolino which the cousins Trinchero treat to as gentle a fermentation as possible to keep the notoriously chewy tannins of Grignolino reigned in. Typically this wine will need a year or two of bottle age to round into form, and then makes a lovely accompaniment to dishes that demand a lighter styled, but complex and tangy red wine.
The wines of Renato and Ezio Trinchero are beautifully-crafted, artisanal wines of great distinction and complexity that deserve a place in any well-stocked Italian wine cellar or a place on a similarly thoughtful wine list.
