2006 Albana di Romagna Passito Riserva Cuore Matto

Born in 1998, this 35 hectare estate (divided between 25 hectares of vines, seven of cherries, and three of plums) is located on the first slopes of Oriolo at about 120-180 meters above sea level. From the start, the Morini family decided to bet on Romagna’s two most important native grapes, Albana and Sangiovese. In 2001 experimentation started with an ancient local native red grape called Centesimino (officially recognized as a wine grape by the Italian government only in 2004.) Things have only gotten better for the once-forgotten grape since then and in 2017 the first Centesimino DOC wine “Centesimino di Oriolo” (Oriolo is the original area where Centesimino was grown) will officially see the light of day. Never one to stand still, ownwer Alessandro Morini and his family have now also started working with Uva Longanesi (also called Burson, though the latter is most often used as the name of the wine), from which they make (at least for the moment) only one wine. Since 2010, the estate’s consultant winemaker has been Maurizio Castelli, star winemaker at Badia a Coltibuono and Grattamacco for example; Morini told me the wines have improved further since Castelli’s arrival (he cited better phenolic ripeness, better oak management and just greater purity in general.) Alessandro’s brother Cristiano owns twenty hectares of vineyards at Celle di Faenza and will supply Alessandro with grapes when they are needed.