Young To Young is by now an annual appointment for Italian Grapevine at Vinitaly. Organized and led by the Food&Wine journalists Paolo Massobrio and Marco Gatti of Il Golosario, this event aims to connect young producers to young communicators and opinion makers.
Today we had the pleasure of participating in a very session dedicated to three young women producers.
We opened with Virginia Lo Rizzo of Tenute Tozzi, a winery located in the beautiful hills of Emilia Romagna, the region of Bologna. Virginia spoke with enthusiasm of her grandfather’s dream of planting a vineyard, and making wine to share with friends and family. Nonno Franco must be a man of great visions, as he also expanded his wine dream to none other than… Mount Etna, Sicily!
Virginia presented Tantalilli, a white wine made from the Albana native grape variety of Romagna. The charming gold color of this wine introduced us to an elegant bouquet of peach, apricot, pineapple, wet stones, and hints of saffron and honey. The name Tantalilli takes inspiration from one of Virginia’s cousins; all the wines are named after a different family member.
The second producer, Rosa Moio of the Quintodecimo winery, brought us to the wonderful area of Irpinia in Campania in Southern Italy. Rosa’s father is the renowned professor and oenologist Luigi Moio who founded Quintodecimo in the early 2000s. Now the whole family is involved in the winery; Rosa oversees the communication and incoming part.
The Moio family strongly believes in the connection with the territory, and their wines reflect this. We tasted Exultet, a 2021 Fiano di Avellino with lovely aromas and flavours of blossom, linden, acacia, citrus fruit and pineapple. Here too the name has a story: Exultet means ‘Rejoice!’ in Latin. It refers to the Medieval chants sung on the night before Easter – a wine for this season! It’s the perfect name for a wine that really brings faith to your nose, palate and soul!
Back to the north, we landed in Piedmont, in the beautiful Monferrato region. The third producer, Francesca Bonzano of Bonzano Vini, told us about her family project of buying vineyards and making wine. Francesca and her cousins represent the first generation of producers. Based in Milan and with a background in marketing, she displayed great self-confidence, with a vision for innovation as well as humility and gratitude to her family.
Francesca brought her favorite wine, which she calls her ‘bambino’: Hosteria, an uncommon blend of Pinot Noir and Barbera of the 2019 vintage. The colorful and bottle with unusual shape lend a unique and modern touch to this wine. The aromas of roses, raspberry, red cherry, white pepper on the nose charmed us all, and then left place to a warm embrace of liquorice, leather and coffee.
Three princesses of wine, and a happy tasting!
By Italian Grapevine contributing writer, Francesca Giuliano, WSET Level 3
Suzanne Branciforte's Italian Grapevine 
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