Ginevra

Ginevra is Isolabella della Croce's Alta Langa DOCG metodo classico, 75% Chardonnay and 25% Pinot Nero, grown above Loazzolo in the Alta Langa. The family business began in the 1800s with liqueurs and a Moscato-based vermouth; the plant was destroyed in the bombing of 1943, and more than half a century passed before the family - Lodovico Isolabella della Croce, Maria Teresa, and their sons Luigi and Francesco - came back to the land as wine producers in 2001. The estate makes around 100,000 bottles a year and its range leans on still Barbera and Pinot Nero. The Loazzolo vineyards sit in a natural amphitheatre between 500 and 550 metres, on mineral-rich, well-drained calcareous marl, ringed by woodland that keeps the nights cool and the days ventilated. Ginevra's own parcels start at 450 metres, facing east and west.

Picking is by hand across the second and third weeks of August. The must is pressed gently in a pneumatic press and fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel, and no malolactic is allowed. Disgorgement tops each bottle back up with the same wine and no added sugar, so the Brut Nature is literal. The house specifies a minimum of 40 months on the lees; this bottle went to tirage in August 2021 and was disgorged in November 2024, landing a shade under that.

Alta Langa is a metodo classico denomination by rule: 90 to 100 percent Chardonnay and Pinot Nero, with up to a tenth of other non-aromatic varieties permitted, off vineyards above 250 metres across Asti, Alessandria and Cuneo, at least 30 months on the lees, and always vintage-dated. The 2020 harvest opened on 17 August. Flowering had run about two weeks early, though the picking itself came nothing like that far ahead of normal, and Giulio Bava, the Consorzio's president, described fruit that arrived healthy and balanced between ripeness and acid drive. The Consorzio gives Ginevra's first vintage as 2018. Alta Langa DOCG, 12.5%.