La Visciola - Cesanese del Piglio Priore Mozzatta 2020

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Producer	La Visciola
Country	Italy
Region	Lazio
Subregion	Cesanese del Piglio
Varietal	Cesanese
Vintage	2020
Sku	12013175
Size	750ml

   

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La Visciola, in the appellation of Piglio in southern Lazio, is an as-of-now still hidden treasure: and treasure really is the word for it. The domaine—at only 4.5 hectares, with wines made in a tint estate—is owned and operated by vignaiolo Piero Macciocca, together with his wife Rosa and daughters Cecilia and Elisia, all of whom tend the vines together. Recently, Decanter wrote an in-depth article about Cesanese in Lazio and quoted La Visciola as the absolute standard-bearer for producers in the region. In general, this part of Lazio, and La Visciola’s place in it, reminds us a bit of what the scene on Mt. Etna looked like in the early 2000’s before outside money jumped in. We wouldn’t be surprised if in a decade or so, La Visciola is genuinely a cult producer, the equivalent of something like Benanti or I Vigneri.

All of the Macciocca family’s vines of Cesanese were planted in the 1960’s, and they’ve been farmed organically since then, with applications of copper or sulfur only in the vines for the last sixty years. They’ve also been farming biodynamically since 2005, with the tiny winery’s first release in 2008. The thing you notice first at the winery is the palpable vibrancy in the vineyards: legumes and nitrogen-fixing plants between the rows, old fruit trees interspersed and preserved among the vines, some of the old pergola training systems remaining. This is a pocket of Italy where old traditions have not been forgotten; indeed the notion of monoculture is almost laughable in this rural appellation of Piglio, whose character still hasn’t been fully revealed to the wine world.

Cesanese del Piglio DOCG is located in the province of Frosinone: vineyards are dotted around the foot of a large, striking rocky outcropping, with olive trees and pine woods in a patchwork circling the steep hill. The village itself is built up onto the side of these large, rocky hills. With total hectares in the Piglio appellation around a whopping 250-300, Piero actually has a notable piece of this special place (at 4ha!). The climate is between continental and Mediterranean, the soils are all red clay. As of the 2022 vintage, the wines are all made in concrete tanks, with most aged for a year before bottling. 

Biodynamic. 100% Cesanese. A single-vineyard parcel of 75+ year-old Cesanese vines at 350msl. This parcel, ‘Mozzatta,’ is different from all the rest of the La Visciola crus; it has a higher proportion of white clay in the soils that gives deeper power and more aromatic concentration than in all the other little vineyards. We’ve tasted it with around 8-10 years of age, and it reminds us, for reasons we don’t quite understand, of great, mature Vosne-Romanée or Nuits-Saint-Georges. Fermented and aged for at least one year in a mix of concrete tanks and neutral barrels; another year in bottle. Unfined, unfiltered. 1500 btls total. Mozzatta is destined for greatness and should be given another 5-10 years to age, if you can keep from drinking it now.