Il Bepi 2014, La Rifra
Straw yellow colour with greenish reflections. Citrus sensation, floral, white pulp fruit. Sapid, with good acidity and structure, soft and delicate. Lurking behind is a new dimension of the tropical, mandarin orange fruit, pink grapefruit, orange peel, a hint of marzipan and green herbal. The past four years in the bottle are adding a gold colour. It also finishes with a hint of liquorice from the skins of the almonds and hazelnuts. Very elegant and harmonious, it has a creamy medium finish. We rank it high, Like DD92.
You might have known Lugana(southern end of Lake Garda and roughly midway between Brescia and Veron) is the land of just one grape: Turbiana. Wines made from Turbiana wines age well, hence there are some complexities by now. The grape used is over 40 years old. The exposure is North-south on clay-limestone soil at 70-80 metres, not too high. The training system is Double-Guyot for better ripeness, with a plant density of 3600-4000 plants per hectare. Ageing is two years in barrels of which six months in bottle. Harvest is manual.
