That’s one of the best parts about the wine industry...if you keep trying, you’ll find something you never knew existed, and you’ll be both blown away with sheer joy and angry that you didn’t discover it sooner. If you were to mention sparkling wine from Northern Italy to me a couple of years ago, I would have immediately thought of Prosecco...and I would be hesitant. Before I tasted the predecessor of this wine (the 2018 vintage we featured last year) for the first time, I feared the worst. Instead? I loved it! So I came in with far greater expectations when the 2019 landed in our warehouse a couple weeks back…and again, I was left pleasantly surprised! This is even better than the 2018 – more fruit and overall oomph, but with that same fantastic minerality, and exotic spice profile. If you missed out on the 2018 – no frets – this is the Piemonte bubbly you’ve been waiting for!!

Tenuta Carretta is historic. Truly. Like over 550 years of winemaking historic. This winery predates Christopher Columbus, with records placing its founding in the year 1467. The estate is set in the rolling hills of Piobesi d’Alba, Roero, just north of the City of Alba and on the left bank of the Tanaro River. Named for the Piobese noblewoman, Domina Carretta, who first owned the estate, Tenuta Carretta makes mostly red, still wines – only recently branching out into the world of Italian spumantes. 

The estate-grown grapes hail from their Airali vineyard high up in the Alta Langa, from a region only recently used for grape production – and more famously known for the hazelnut forests that provide the world with Nutella (Alba is where the Nutella factory stands and the whole city smells of gloriously rich and gooey Nutella). Researchers began experimenting with pinot noir and chardonnay in the 1990s, with great results. This is made entirely from pinot noir and receives the rare “millesimato” designation – meaning that all the fruit stems from a single vintage, in this case, the 2019 harvest. The wine spends a minimum of 3 years on the lees, a la vintage champagne, and the final dosage is a paltry 4 g/l …qualifying the wine as an extra brut, though labeled here as brut. 

The aromas are wild, bright, and savory – from alpine wildflowers, to foraged red berries, and an entire apothecary’s worth of aromatic herbs. The flavors are crisp, clean, and complex – dried cherries, strawberries, Earl Grey tea, sourdough bread, dusty iron…and more! Like its predecessor – it’s precise, focused, and completely unique – just so much going on! This is a worthy Italian sparkler – even at the full retail of $50. At nearly half that price today, this is something special indeed!