Collection: Giorgio Nicolini

Giorgio Nicolini is a tiny family producer working a 2 hectare patch on the very edge of Italy, where the hills above the old Venetian colony of Muggia tip down to the Gulf of Trieste  with the Slovenian and Croatian borders only steps away. Giorgio and Rossana farm in the old way, hewing close to traditions inherited from their grandparents and devoting much of their effort to replanting old native varieties from the original 100-year clones in their own vineyard - Malvasia Istriana and Vitovska on the whites, Piccola Nera and Borgogna Nera on the reds. The vines are 20-30 years old on clay with marine sediments, catching the singular light  created by the meeting of Alpine and Mediterranean air, treated minimally with no systemics in the vineyard and a hands-off cellar approach to match - hand-harvested in small baskets,  fermented with native yeasts, basket pressed and bottled unfiltered with only the smallest sulphur additions. These are wines that taste unmistakably of where they come from. - Pete L