£20.60
Matt Gregory The Italian Orange
Region: Piedmont
Grape: Moscato 100%
Colour: White
Bottle Size: 75cl
Alcohol: 12.5%
Vintage: 2019
Production: 784 bottles
"Intensely aromatic and grapey with an apricot sweetness. Bitter orange note on the palate, relatively mild tannins. Fresh, dryness enhanced by the tannins, lots of fragrant pleasure with the tannic structure as a complement. Drink 2021–2023"
16 points, Julia Harding MW
- PRODUCER NOTES
- FARMING & WINEMAKING NOTES
Working as a wine merchant in England for more than 20 years, Matt Gregory eventually started making his own wines in Sussex and in New Zealand, where he worked alongside Theo Coles (of The Hermit Ram in North Canterbury).
Matt’s wines originate both from England and Italy, and are all labelled as ‘The English Winemaker’. He has a natural approach to winemaking and allows the different terroirs to express themselves.
The English wines are produced from grapes grown at the organically farmed Walton Brook Vineyard (two hectares, south facing) on the Leicestershire Wolds. Soil includes 200 million year old Jurassic fine grained limestone (mud made up from carbonates of coral and shell) overlain with two million year old glacial deposits featuring limestone, flint and ironstone.
The Italian wines come from Villa Giada in Piedmont, grapes are sustainably farmed, no synthetic herbicides or pesticides are used.
The Italian Orange is a rare gem and a unique interpretation of Moscato. The area is well-known for Moscato production, which is generally sweet, low alcohol and fizzy wine. This is quite the opposite, a skin fermented, dry white wine, originating from the Villa Giada estate located in Canelli (South of Asti in Piedmont).
Grapes are sorted by hand in the winery and destemmed, but for the 2019 vintage Matt opted for 35% in whole-bunch to add a little more structure. Fermented in a single 1000 litre steel tank with natural indigenous yeast and just a couple of hand plunges throughout the fermentation, then left on the skins for a total of 43 days. The grapes were pressed back to a steel tank to rest on lees for nearly a year. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with just a small (20 ppm) addition of sulphur.
This could be the only 100% skin fermented dry Moscato in Piedmont. The label’s artwork is by Vanessa Stone.
PRODUCER NOTES
Working as a wine merchant in England for more than 20 years, Matt Gregory eventually started making his own wines in Sussex and in New Zealand, where he worked alongside Theo Coles (of The Hermit Ram in North Canterbury).
Matt’s wines originate both from England and Italy, and are all labelled as ‘The English Winemaker’. He has a natural approach to winemaking and allows the different terroirs to express themselves.
The English wines are produced from grapes grown at the organically farmed Walton Brook Vineyard (two hectares, south facing) on the Leicestershire Wolds. Soil includes 200 million year old Jurassic fine grained limestone (mud made up from carbonates of coral and shell) overlain with two million year old glacial deposits featuring limestone, flint and ironstone.
The Italian wines come from Villa Giada in Piedmont, grapes are sustainably farmed, no synthetic herbicides or pesticides are used.
FARMING & WINEMAKING NOTES
The Italian Orange is a rare gem and a unique interpretation of Moscato. The area is well-known for Moscato production, which is generally sweet, low alcohol and fizzy wine. This is quite the opposite, a skin fermented, dry white wine, originating from the Villa Giada estate located in Canelli (South of Asti in Piedmont).
Grapes are sorted by hand in the winery and destemmed, but for the 2019 vintage Matt opted for 35% in whole-bunch to add a little more structure. Fermented in a single 1000 litre steel tank with natural indigenous yeast and just a couple of hand plunges throughout the fermentation, then left on the skins for a total of 43 days. The grapes were pressed back to a steel tank to rest on lees for nearly a year. Bottled unfined, unfiltered with just a small (20 ppm) addition of sulphur.
This could be the only 100% skin fermented dry Moscato in Piedmont. The label’s artwork is by Vanessa Stone.