2019/2020 "Fileura White Wine
Muraje
"For a very outré take on Erbaluce, I highly recommend grabbing one of the (sadly scant) bottles of Fileura. The white is foot-trodden, spontaneously fermented, and a world away from the light/snappy/sometimes a tad watery iterations of Erbaluce that are better for quenching thirst after an alpine hike. Filura is substantial, deserves a meal, and will spark thoughts about what’s really possible from this variety." - our supplier on his visit
The grapes are 100% Erbaluce (local white grapevine varieties, widespread in the Canavese and Pre-Alpine areas); the vines are on everage 50 years old and are trained using the ancient ‘pergola caremese’ (‘topia’ in local dialect) method. The surface planted with Erbaluce is extremely small and fragmented for a truly limited production. “Fileura” is the dialect term to indicate the fourth wooden beam (starting from the lowest which is the “Sumié”) of the order of beams that make up the caremese pergola structure (topia): the Fileura is the thinnest and highest beam, it rests perpendicularly on the Lasú (under which there are first the "Percia" and then the "Sumié"). This version of Fileura wine is made up of the union of the 2019 and 2020 vintages, because they were complementary wines.
Vintage 2019: grapes were harvested and sorted manually at the end of September. In the evening, the grapes were gently crushed by feet and the must has been separated with a light pressing in a traditional manual press. After a night of natural sedimentation in a stainless steel tank, it was racked into a small fiberglass tank for spontaneous fermentation. Subsequently it matures in stainless steel tanks on fine lees. The wine did not undergo malolactic fermentation.
Vintage 2020: grapes were harvested and sorted manually at the end of October. In the evening, the grapes were gently crushed by feet and the must has been separated with a light pressing in a traditional manual press. After a night of natural sedimentation in a stainless steel tank, it was racked into a small fiberglass tank for spontaneous fermentation. Subsequently it matures in a barrique used on its fine lees with periodic batonage. The wine did not undergo malolactic fermentation for this vintage too. The two vintages were blended in summer 2021 and bottling in September 2021 resulting in n° 582 75cl bottles.
A subtle, decisive, elegant, whispered white wine that requires attention and time in the glass. The permanence in the bottle will certainly still provide growth prospects. - winery
