2019 Roccafiore Fiordaliso Grechetto Bianco

For many years our house white was a Grechetto from Umbria, its quality waned and, a little bereft, we set about the arduous task of finding wines to fill the void. The search for another ‘Grechetto’ has been an education, it turns out that there are two grape varieties in Umbria called Grechetto and that they are not clones, they are not even related… Grechetto di Orvieto (that we used to buy) is a member of the Trebbiano family (Ugni Blanc, Arien etc…) and Grechetto di Todi, which has many names; Grechetto Gentile and Rébola in Emilia Romagna, Pallagrello do Caserta in Campania, and Occhietto and Stozzavolpe in the Marche. Grechetto di Todi is a great grape variety, perhaps held back by a former lack of ambition in Todi. However, there is a new generation of winemakers who have recognised the potential of this variety and it looks set to rise out of obscurity.
The vineyard is Guyot trained vines at a density of 6500 plants per hectare. The yield around 95 hectolitres per hectare, when making this style of wine experiments with lower yields were not successful. The harvest is in the first part of September, all the vines are picked by hand.
The grapes are gently pressed, the must is then left to settle before a temperature-controlled fermentation in steel tanks. The finished wine is left in tank for 6 months before bottling.