Ca’Liptra - Cupramontana, Marches, Italy
(the ca'liptra quartet!)
THE MARCHES: EXCITING OREGON PREMIERE OF THE WINES OF CA'LIPTRA
We're convinced the two finest Verdicchio zones on earth are "Castelli di Jesi" and "Verdicchio di Matelica" in Italy's Marches region. And, we're convinced there are no better producers in Jesi than La Distesa and Fattoria Coroncino, and there are none better in Matelica than the La Monacesca wines of Aldo Cifola.
SO WHY ANOTHER MARCHES PRODUCER?
LET US GO BACK…
June 20, 2011, Cupramontana, Marches, Italy.
Serious, with the smallest measure of confident mischief in his demeanor, Giovanni Loberto had been in the right place at the right time on our first visit to Cupramontana's La Distesa winery. He was making wine alongside the most revered winemaker in the zone - Corrado Dottori - whose wines we've managed to bring in only once: they were sensational. Over our several hour visit we were increasingly amazed by the wines, by the farming and by the care in each detail Giovanni employed. It is no wonder La Distesa wines are about impossible to find (now they are imported into the USA by Louis/Dressner - some in stock now!)
With self possessed singular drive and genuine passion, Giovanni bolstered his learning from the Master... E&R stayed in touch with Giovanni. Happily, in the interim when Giovanni left La Distesa to begin his own project - the terroir driven "Ca'Liptra" - with his three associates, we followed their work too.
Since Ca'Liptra's first commercial vintage, we've made three visits with Giovanni at Ca'Liptra's "new" old school winery - once in 2015 and again in 2016 and 2018. Now in 2019 the new wines make their Oregon Premiere. Over those years since, Giovanni and Co. have used their invaluable experience magnificently. As Miles once mused "it takes a long time to sound like yourself." Ca'Liptra wines sing of their own unique voice - something we knew was moving toward fruition.
CA'LIPTRA
Know first - it the place and the farming: absolutely nothing can replace excellence in either category. The Ca'Liptra team are maniacal about their work in the vineyards. On our four collective visits, each time we met Giovanni he met us coming directly from the vines. On the first visit to Ca'Liptra, we walked through waist high foliage throughout the vineyard. At first - so dense and vibrant and teaming with life, plant, birds and bugs - it was not clear it even was a vineyard. Farming is totally organic and the winemaking process is fully natural. All this counts mightily in the end.
The "Ca'Liptra" plays off a few things: Ca (home), calyptra (the tissue that protects the buds from flowers and fruits and is shedded), and a combination of the four partners names/initials - Giovanni Loberto, Roberto Pisani, Antonella TRaspadini, and Agostino Alfieri. Their small holdings are a little less than four acres in which they've sourced some great land. All their vines average over forty years in age in the best of locales in Jesi. Top vines are hard to come by: new planting is prohibited. The vines around Cupramontana are up high, which, combined with the soil and criss-crossing inland mountain influence by seaward Adriatic weather help account for its top ranking in the region. As Giovanni explained about his terroir - it is more clay at the top with limestone, sand and chalk throughout.
The team is ambitious and experimental in doing their best to learn the most in their work. On our first visit to Ca'Liptra, in illustrating their desire to know more and make better wine, Giovanni discussed their work with various natural yeasts and their potential impacts. Together we had a revealing tasting of the same wine in seven barrels, each wine using different yeasts.
Soooo, why another Marches producer for us? Use of skin contact, working with the Trebbiano grape, a unique Sparkling wine, wholly organic viticulture, natural winemaking efforts, a Rosso and more. These things differentiate Ca'Liptra from the great wines Coroncino and La Monacesca!
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Click on each wine for more detail.
