Camporomano Barbera LA STOPPA, Elena Pantaleoni, Rivergaro, Emilia-Romagna 2013

RIVERGARO, Emilia-Romagna 

La Stoppa spreads on 30 hectares of vines and 28 ha of forest on the first slopes of the Apennins in the South West part of Piacenza, at about 250 meters high.

Here is a silty clay heavy soil, summers are dry and hot, and rains fall at end of automn or early spring.

Elena Pantaleoni, the winemaker took over the family estate in 1993, helped by Giulio Armani, she rapidly guided the production toward the organic farming rules and the use of local grapes. Today, the grapes planted are for red wines Barbera and Bonarda and for white wines Malvasia di Candia aromatica, Ortrugo and Trebiano, some Moscato.

All the estate is in certified organic culture and winemaking doesn’t use any enological products. As for Elena Pantaleoni, wines have to be true and linked to the soil they are from. This is the only way to produce unique wines that won’t be the same to another produced somewhere else.

From 20-40-year-old estate vines on a slope on heavy, silty, iron-rich clay soils. The farming is certified organic and includes no natural fertliizers or other soil enhancements, with wild plants growing among the vine rows. Camporomano does not go through malolactic fermentation due to the particular combination of low pH and high acidity. The wine is aged in mix of used barriques and 40-hectoliter Slavonian oak tini. It is bottled without filtration or sulfur and aged in bottle for a minimum of 2 years before release. Prior to the 2011 vintage, the wine was called "Barbera della Stoppa" but is now named after the vineyard.

This Barbera grape matures well on these hot and sun-drenched hills and transforms into a wine which improves with age, owing this to its fresh and lively acidity. This is why a pure Barbera is produced only when the quality and the quantity of the harvest allows it.

Grape: 100% Barbera 

Organic