Birichino 2022 Malvasia Bianca

Winery Notes:

Among the myriad wines which constitute BirichinoLand, few are as consistent year to year as Malvasia Bianca for the simple reason that the wine's character is dominated by its own badass, baroque Malvasianess, rather than dramatic variations in vintage conditions. That being said, a distinctly Alsatian quality swirls about the 2022, recalling the fine, elegant qualities we might associate with Riesling more so than the rococo, Muscatini stylings of most vintages. And this, without a single change in our proprietary, some might say, Goldbergian vinification, the elements of which may or may not include: night harvesting by machine (in most vintages) at our express direction, a dozen hours skin-contact prior to pressing to allow for maximum aromatic potential; a bifurcated pressing regime which yields elegant light press, and psychedelic hard press fractions; our only employment of cultured yeast from an isolate first sourced in a Burgundian vineyard whose particular magic charm is that through natural enzymatic activity it unbinds otherwisebound terpenes, rendering them aromatically available; and a low and slow fermentation lasting roughly three months in steel. These factors combine to allow Malvasia to take off like a rocket ship from launch pad 11, slip the surly bonds of Natural Wine, and touch the face of God.

92 points Wine Enthusiast