2014 Sauvignon La Breccia

The estate is owned by the Mirizzi family, who also own a very fine wine shop in Rome’s Tuscolana area (the Enoteca Bomprezzi). Brothers Gianluca and Alessandro Mirizzi are true Verdicchio experts, and the involvement here of star consulting winemaker Lorenzo Landi (who understands Verdicchio like few others in Italy) further contributes to the estate's very precise and perfumed style of wines. Landi told me that in the last few years he had perhaps gotten carried away with harvesting a little too early in the season in an effort to make the most perfumed wines possible. On the one hand, this preserved thiol molecules in the grapes--and hence resulted in wines redolent of green fig and passionfruit. But it also meant running the risk of introducing a light vegetal streak. By delaying the harvest by just by to five days, he has gained greater texture in his wines without losing any of their magical perfume.