Forteto della Luja, Loazzolo, Asti, Piemonte

Cristina and Giovanni Scaglione are the couple behind Forteto della Luja in Loazzolo.  Loazzolo is Italy’s smallest DOC; they are also making wine in the Monferrato and Asti DOCGs.  Forteto della Luja is named after the Rio Luja, which runs around the vineyards.  It is a property that was first registered as a farm in ​​1826, but some of the farm buildings date from the 18th century.  It has been in the Scaglione family for 8 generations, but up until 1985 they were mostly selling grapes and not making wine commercially.  That year they began producing Moscato Passito (Piasa Rischei) to much acclaim.  The work evolved from there to include the wines you see today.  In 2007, the vineyards became an affiliate WWF Oasis– they practice biodynamic farming with diverse fauna and flora, including orchids, growing on the property. The vineyards are on steep slopes, limestone and clay marl soils with some iron rich soils.  The vines are up to 80 years old.  SO2 before bottling less than .09g/L

WINES

Pasucra Moscato Secco D.O.C:
Moscato Bianco, Fun Fact: Piemonte’’s first Moscato Secco with Denomination of Controlled Origin (D.O.C. – Denominazione di origine Controllata) is called "Pasucrà", a Piedmontese dialect term meaning "not sweet". A new but ancient wine, son of the peasant tradition of the "filtrated sweet" that became dry as the summer months passed.
Vineyards: calcareous-sandy soil. Hillside location above 400 meters altitude with southern exposure and manually cultivated rows. Vines grown using the traditional short Guyot method.
Vinification: the grapes are harvested ripe but not overripe in small perforated crates, a few days before our Moscato Sanmaurizio with careful selection of the bunches. After the crushing, the pomace is left in cold maceration for more than 24 hours and softly pressed to obtain a must rich in polyphenols. Fermentation takes place with specially selected house yeasts until a completely dry wine is obtained. This is followed by cold stabilization and bottling.

Moscato D'Asti DOC:
​Moscato Bianco.  Vineyards: Marly-limestone terrain. Southeast, south and southwest facing slopes at more than 400 metres above sea level. Contour ploughing and terracing are used throughout the vineyards and the vines are trained and pruned by hand. The vines are planted densely, with more than 7,000 shoots per hectare, trained in the traditional Guyot method with short trunks.
​Vinification: The ripened grapes are harvested selectively and gradually by hand, placed in small slatted crates and then immediately pressed and fermented.  The wine is stabilized and cold-chain bottled in heavy Borgognotte bottles. The label has a traditional design taken from the vineyard archives.

Mon Ross, Barbera d'Asti:
Barbera, four months elevage in barrel.  Soil: decarbonated soil with a neutral reaction, mainly clayey, light loamy or light sandy soils of yellow or reddish hue.  Vineyards: very steep slopes at more than 300 meters above sea level. The exposure is sunny and the climate is ideai for this vine. On average the vines are more than thirty years old and the ecological balance is interesting because nearby there are copses of trees.  Vinification: manually harvested selectively and placed in slatted crates to protect the fruit.  Crushed, fermented, placed in temperature controlled vats.  Then moved to oak barrels where they stay til bottling the first full moon of March.

Le Grive, Monferrato Rosso:
Barbera and Pinot Noir 70/30, whole cluster, 10 months in barrel (20% new oak).    Soil: limestone-marl with the presence of clay, sandstone and sands.  Vineyards: more than 400 meters above sea level on sunny ridges with an ideal climate. The vineyards are surrounded by stone walls and dotted with gorse and juniper. The vines are trained using the short Guyot method with at least 7,000 shoots per hectare. Fieldfares (Turdus pilaris - Grive in ltalian) seek out the juniper berries on the bushes around the vineyards and give their name to the wine.  Vinification: Manual harvest towards the end of the season. Grapes are pressed and fermented in small, temperature-controlled vats. After racking, the malolactic fermentation is encouraged and natural stabilisation occurs during the cold winter months. The wine is aged in small oak barrels for about ten months. Bottling usually takes place at the end of summer, just before the grapes from the next harvest are processed.