Collecapretta Merlo Nero Umbria Red 2022

100% Merlot

Organic

Umbria, Italy

“Merlo Nero” or “The Blackbird” is an opulent red wine made from Merlot vines grown in the hills and grown on trellises as in the Umbrian peasant tradition. Spontaneous fermentation without temperature control, with 6 to 8 days skin maceration. The wine is aged in either cement/fiberglass/stainless steel until bottling. No sulfur is added and there is no filtering or fining. 

The Mattioli family has been in the tiny hamlet the Roman's once called Collecapretta (hill of the goats) since the 1100's. For generations the Mattioli have been cultivating the rugged hillsides of southern most Umbria. Located just outside of Spoleto, in the near-impossible-to-find borgo called Terzo la Pieve, today's farm is a scant 8 hectares in total; 2 planted to a mixture of local olives trees, 2 ha of farro and other ancient grains and  ~ 4 ha of indigenous old vines. Vittorio Mattioli, his wife Anna and their daughter Annalisa live together with 3 generations of their family inside the tiny village overlooking the valley below with the high Apennine Mountains and Gran Sasso looming in the background. The elevation is some 500+ meters and the soils are a mixture of calcium and iron rich clay with outcroppings of tufo and travertine limestone. Though the total production of Collecapretta is only some 8000 bottles in a good year, the family chooses to vinify many different cuvee's in hopes of expressing the vineyard and grape varieties at their best.