7/23/26 - 

Today we have a wide variety of Italian wines. Everything from the northeast with Edi Keber's Collio Bianco, to the Alpine foothills with Casaretti's historic wines, and all the way south to Controcorrente on Mount Etna. While these are the three producers highlighted, there are more gems in the collection like a new Grillo from Arianna Occhipinti and a chillable red from Paolo Bea, plus many more!

Casaretti

Bardolino is a beautiful historic town on the southeast side of Lake Garda in the Veneto. The region is what it is today because of a glacier that carved into the land and then melted, creating a series of lakes like Garda, Como, Iseo, Lugano and Maggiore. The local red wine is name after the town of Bardolino, while the rosés are called Chiaretto, translating to 'pale pink one'. The history of Chiaretto is fascinating, going all the way back to 300AD during the Roman Empire. This area was considered an extension of Provence, two zones making excellent pale pink roses after the Romans introduced the wine press. The reason why Provence is more widely known in modern day than Bardolino is likely a variety of factors, but likely the explosion of tourism around these beautiful sub-Alpine lakes increased wine demand and reduced quality. Luckily, a series of small producers in the early 2000's pushed to bring back ancient methods like making a direct press rosé, abandoning the saignees of the 80's and 90's. Enter Stefano of Casaretti, a small, organic winery making some of my favorite examples of Bardolino, Chiaretto, and Garganega. His 2024 Bardolino Classico is an excellent light red, balancing ease and complexity at the same time. Raspberry, cherry, and violet with a peppery minerality, and lovely with a chill. The new vintage of 2025 Chiaretto di Bardolino is delicate & salty, with grapefruit, rose petal, melon and that signature stony minerality. Calling all fans of Provence rosé! Two whites from Stefano are also in the collection. 2025 Biancosale is a lemony, briny, sharp bottling, and 2024 Brol di Calmasino is a macerated and aged white with deeper golden notes of apricot, tangerine peel, and woodsy herbs.

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Controcorrente

Nino Calì is making small quantities of fun wines on family land on the beautiful volcano of Mount Etna. He believes in people and family contributing to terroir and so he follows traditional methods. Everything is destemmed and his use of wood is very limited. I tasted these wines recently and felt such a joy and buoyancy to them. Today we have his 2024 Pet Nat Vino Preliminaire Rosato, made from all Nerello Mascalese, with a beautiful peachy, blush color, bright acidty, and nice creaminess from 12 months on the lees. 2024 Sulle Bucce is a blend of Carricante, Cataratto, Grillo & Trebbiano all macerated on the skins separately then blended. Apple, pear, apricot, and green tea tannins. These are expressive wines for your summer dinner parties & porch hangs.

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Edi Keber

Calling all fans of Gravner, Radikon, Venica, and Ronchi di Cialla! Edi Keber is a very special Collio based estate focusing on biodynamics and permaculture with wild herbs, fruit trees, and grazing animals amongst the co-planted grape vines. The poor ponka soils of the Collio create distinctively dense, mineral, and ageworthy whites. Edi was part of the push for a return to native grapes in Friuli. Going even further to the celebration of native grapes, he only makes one wine- a blend of Ribolla Gialla (for acidity), Friulano (for texture), and Malvasia Istriana (for aromatics). These three grapes work well to make a complete and harmonious wine full of white peach, elderflower, and almond with great texture. While this is a full bodied white, there is a level of freshness keeping it light on its feet. They believe in cement as the best fermentation and aging vessel, finding stainless steel to be too clinical for their soulful wine. Kristian, Edi's son and the next generation of the estate, is set to follow in his father's footsteps.

-Marisa Licandro

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