Fletcher Cantina della Stazione Dolcetto D’Alba DOC 2023

Sourced from a low-cropping, 65 years old vineyard in Treiso, owned by Paolo Rivetti. The vineyard sits at 170 metres of altitude, on bony white calcareous soils with a touch of ferrous clay.

The grapes are hand picked early in the cool morning, then brought to La Stazione. 100% open fermented, with soft regular hand plunging to achieve low, soft extraction. No temperature control. The juice sits with the skins and it builds up its steam and its temperature and its fermentation strength over many days. Only native yeasts are used so the fermentation can last anywhere from two to three weeks. 9 months in 300 litres seasoned barrels. Bottles unlined and unfiltered.

“I am still using barrels which is, I guess, getting unique. But the fact is my quantities are so small and the way I do my picking in vineyards is derived around tasting the fruit and doing subsections so keeping the ferment separate, keeping the aging separate. So I have batches of wine that comes 300 liters that one barrel and I can’t see the benefit of making early decisions to blend these things up and throw them in a big Botti. So just for me right now I will continue doing what is working and the old barrels are working for me on my size and my scale. The barrels that I’m buying and 10 year old barrels before I used them.” – David