Reale 2022 Costa d'Amalfi Aliseo

Pairs with: Linguine with pesto and chicken

Good for: A white wine for a chilly evening

Grape: Biancolella, Biancazita (Falanghina), Pepella

I am from: Amalfi Coast, Italy

The story: At Reale, what you see is what you get. Gigino and Gaetano run the show and produce five wines with a total production of around 25,000 bottles. They make wine in the tiniest of cellars and are a certified organic winery. Even if they wanted to use more modern techniques in their vineyards it wouldn’t be possible! The wines grow within an incredible array of plant life in an ecosystem of seemingly perfect balance where you find beautiful flowers, grass and weed growing to knee height at times. At the center of it all, these mammoth vines that are somehow able to produce fantastic fruit year after year despite their age.

Why you'll love me: Aliseo is the name of the wind that brings good weather to the Amalfi. This wine has a serious side, with enough acidity that ensures one of aging potential. Fresh flowers and an almost earthy, herbaceous note are present on the nose. The wine is dry with great structure!

Grapes are harvested by hand from 100 plus year old vines. As one can imagine, yields are incredibly low. The three grapes are harvested together and will ferment with their whole clusters (no destemming). From here about 20% of the wine will age in French Oak that the Reale brothers purchase (used) directly from Burgundy. This 20% will undergo malolactic fermentation in the oak barrels. The remaining 80% ages in stainless steel on the fine lees. In both cases there is very little battonage occurring with this wine. Eventually the wine is assembled together in stainless steel where it spends a month before bottling. 2400 bottles produced!