Mario Mazzitelli, The Genius Winemaker Who Will Change Everything
- Galloni Gave the 2009 Borgomastro 93 Points
- The 2016 Quartara Made the Top 100 Whites in Italy List
- The 2018 Quartara Made the Top 100 Whites in Italy List
- Lunarossa Is Becoming the Darling of the Top Sommeliers in Italy
- One Salesman Has Them in 15 Michelin Starred Restaurants in Italy
- ...Including Seta (**) Perhaps the Top Restaurant in Milan
- Brilliant New Approach to Making Italian White Wine
- Trained at 2 of the Top Wineries in Italy
- The Pricing on These Wines Is The Lowest I've Seen for World Class Wines
2014 Lunarossa Quartara
- A Masterpiece of Winemaking
- Terrific Nuttiness on the Nose
- Palate Has Stone Fruits
- Fresh Minerals like Licking a Rock in a Mountain Stream
- Super Saline
- Terrific Minerality, Nuttiness, Fassy Juiciness
- An Ethereal Quality
- Dense But in a Meursault Kind of Way - Not Overly Fruited
- Perhaps My Favorite Italian White Wine
- World Class Serious French Style Wine - Made in Italy
- Likely the Best Vintage of This I've Had / 30 bottles
2018 Lunarossa Quartara
- 5/5 l'Espresso Guide (The Most Important Italian Guide)
- "Top Italian White" l'Espresso Guide
- Nose: Monstrous Density and Concentration
- Dried Fruits. Apricots, Perfect Peach, a Hint of Lemon
- Terrific Salinity
- The Palate Impact of Hermitage or Corton Charlemagne
- Sucking on a Cold, River-Smoothed Rock Minerality
- Fassy Juiciness
- So Much Going on, It's Almost Alive on the Palate
- Remarkable Wine,
- Should Be in the $80+ Price Range Like Miani / Borgo del Tiglio/Valentini
- The Chance for the Rest of Us to Try World Class Wine for $33.99
2012 Lunarossa Borgomastro
- 93 Points Galloni (2009)
- The Fruit Density of Great Aglianico
- But with Really Terrific Finesse and Balance
- Nose: Sweet, Almost Floral Licorice
- Black Cherry, Juniper, Black Pepper
- Palate: Raspberry, Delicious Sweet Raspberry Liquor
- Licorice, Spice, a Hint of Tar
- Voluminous
- Incredibly Fresh
- Long and Juicy / 36 bottles
2016 Lunarossa Borgomastro
- 93 Points, Eric Guido, Vinous (2009 Vintage)
- 5/5 Bibenda (Important Italian Guide)
- A Stunningly Delicious Red Wine
- Sweet, Gorgeous Spicy Nose
- Fresh Plums on the Palate
- Incredible Density with Great Spice
- Finish Is Like RSV Made from Aglianico - So Dense
- Incredible Value for a Wine This Good
One of the recurring themes of Fass Selections is that there are great winemakers everywhere. It's just a lot of work to find them. We've found them in forgotten parts of the Mosel (Martin Muellen). In Franken (Weltner). In Molise (Cian Fagna). In Alto Piemonte (Barbaglia, Vailloni, Il Chiosso, Roccia Rossa). In Valtellina (Renato and Marsetti). In Savoie (Berlioz). By the Swiss border in Baden (Ziereisen). I could go on.
We were ahead of the curve. And we sent samples to Antonio Galloni at Vinous. He gave the 2009
Borgomastro 93 points. Which is not a surprise given that Lunarossa is racking up the awards in the Italian wine community. Their 2016 Quartara was rated one of the top 100 white wines in Italy by a prestigious Italian reviewer.
So we E-Mailed them and asked what was left in the cellar. There's not much but we grabbed it and are selling it today. For those of you who believed us and bought these before Galloni validated them, here's a chance to buy more. For everyone else, you should get some now and see what you missed.
The White That Is Changing Everything
I'm thrilled to offer the 2014 Lunarossa Quartara for $34.99 each on a 4 pack purchase. This is 100% Fiano. First, please do not draw any conclusions from the price. This is a very young winery with limited marketing dollars and they are making wines in an unheralded area of Campania so the market has not yet had a chance to work its price mechanism on them. They should cost at least in the $60+ range of Miani and the top Borgo del Tiglio bottlings.
The nose is one of those that grabs your attention. Just gorgeous controlled density. Saline and haleznutty. Mineral. Intense dried flowers. Wow. Definitely a wine that could live on its nose if it had to. The most incredible wet earth ever. Yellow fruits. So so so fragrant. Big waxey nose today. Awesome clarity and depth. Perfume. Floral. Like a potpourri. Insane. Apricot, citrus, mineral, so aromatic, some lavender and salt. Fine salt tho. Every time you sniff a new aroma comes out. Stunning.
But the palate is really where the freakshow happens. This is one of those wines that you get it in your mouth and no matter what you are doing, time dilates, almost like a scene in a movie where the main character is fine and everyone else is frozen. Some lemon pith with rocking minerals. I mean minerals that would cause the best winemakers in Chablis and Germany to sit back and take notice. Very, very intense. Terrific, terrific salinity. Wow. Almost an ethereal quality. So much so that you can't really believe this is from Italy. Blind you would guess very good Meursault. The wine is really young and there is so much going on, you'd need at least a day to unpack most of it (I didn't have a day). The density is there but not in an obvious fruity way - more in a coiled fist kind of way that should evolve into something magnificent as this ages. All of this is seamlessly bonded with perfect epic levels of sucking on a cold, river-smoothed rock minerality. Oh, and this wine is not a sledgehammer - it's perfectly balanced with super clean acids - it's so juicy. Great texture on the palate; the wine has truly great palate presence. The finish at this point in its evolution is mineral with a terrific Meursaulty nuttiness.
The trios of Quartaras we've sold make it perhaps the best white wine I've had in Italy but the crazy thing is, it's not one of those whites that is a museum piece type wine where it's purely an intellectual construct and fascinating to taste. It's absolutely one of the most delicious wines I'll offer all year. The fruit is really clean and delicious. It's unlike the top wines from France in that regard which are usually too woody (and sometimes obnoxious) to drink young.
This is 100% Fiano. Only 180 cases were made of a special selection of his best vines. Fermentation is in amphorae. The tops of the amphorae are closed so the wine is not an orange wine (even though the winemaker worked with Gravner). The wine is subsequently aged in oak barrels. Somehow the winemaking gets the most out of the grapes but does not make the wine taste oxidative at all. When I said that the winemaker will change everything, I meant it. Whatever he is doing is remarkable.
Since we only have 30 bottles of the 2014 Quartara I also have the 2018 Lunarossa Quartara for $33.99 on a 4-Pack. Such a freak show. Just an insane wine. I’ll be in an asylum after a glass. The nose is like the best
bath/body works you’ve ever smelled in your life. Tangerine blossoms. Tropical but not blowsy. Everything is mineral here. Even the tropical fruit. Citrus jelly and mint julep! White tea. This stuff is crazy. Hi end bubble bath now. Like “Mediterranean” flavor. If such a thing exists. (I googled it. It does) So damn great. Again with the apricot, citrus and minerals. Super aromatic with some lavender and salt. What salinity! Fine salt tho. Every time you sniff a new aroma comes out. Stunning. Palate is also stunning. Complex and so juicy with serious almost tannins and such dazzling purity and freshness. Freakishly mineral on the palate with a hit of honey and such length. Astonishing length. My oh my. Such balance and energy. So precise.
On Day 2 it gets better! Sick nose, lavender, citrus oil, honey, palate is energetic and mineral wine more fruit and tangy citrus and hints of honey and strong minerality. Very juicy. Super refined and elegant. Bath salts, perfume, Crabtree and Evelyn. Lavender, sea salt. Tree bark. Wood shavings. Flowers. Just sickness. Wow. Intense structure and density. Tannins galore but ripe and so so balanced. Unreal wine. Just sick. So acidic love it. Awesome power. Awesome freshness and length. Just sick. Sick.
Please Do Not Sleep on the Red - It's Fantastic
The second wine is so good, it would have top billing in most E-Mails. It's the 2012 Lunarossa Borgomastro for $39.99 each on a 4 pack purchase. This is one of those very rare Muhammad Ali wines: "Float Like a Butterfly, Sting Like a Bee." It's made from 100% Aglianico which is generally definitely in the heavyweight class in terms of weight. But for some reason, this wine has the fruit density of great Aglianico and it has really terrific finesse and balance. In its own way, it's just as amazing and unique as the white. The nose here is mostly sweet licorice. I'm not talking Twizzlers, I'm talking very light, sweet, almost floral licorice. Just beautiful. Some black cherry, juniper, black pepper and floral elements as well. The fruit on the palate is amazing. Raspberry, delicious sweet raspberry liquor, licorice, spice, a hint of tar, all woven together. Really voluminous on the palate. Amazing balancing acidity and so juicy. Really amazing levels of juiciness for a wine with this amount of fruit density. It'e really incredibly fresh as compared to Taurasi. Perfectly integrated tannins with the structure to age for a decade or more. The finish is long and juicy. The wine is almost sensual in the best way. It has all of the components of Aglianico but they are just presented in a slightly toned down, more gentle way than most Aglianico-based wines.
This is their top of the line red. It's made from a selection of their best grapes from a vineyard near the Picentini mountains. The wine is aged in large oak barrels for 24-30 months.
We also have the 2016 Lunarossa Borgomastro for $34.99 a bottle on a 4-Pack. One of the most elegant Aglianicos out there. A brilliant combo of elegance and power. Gorgeous nose. Blackberry flower. Black fruits, tar, spice, almost like good oil, huge minerals, very deep aromas, penetrating but elegant and almost cooling. Such sleek blackberry fruit. Palate is ripe, juicy, sauve and deep with super velvety tannins and such purity. Terrific freshness. What suave texture. So silky and even more silky as it opens. Such energy and acids. Awesome inner mouth perfumes. Fruit is all black and very tarry and super long. Terrific structure ensures a very long life. After 3 hours of air It gets so good. Big nose. Black fruits, exotic spices, incense, almost raisiny but terrific. Dense, chewy, ripe and elegant. Concentrated, fresh and pure. Really really energetic. Love it. Big velvety tannins. So ripe and high quality tannins. Such a long finish. Becomes a part of the palate. This is Burgundy but made from Aglianico. It has the texture and elegance! A sick sick value.
The Winemaker and the Mountains
The winemaker is named Mario Mazzitelli. He has worked with Quintodecimo and winemaking legend Jasko Gravner (although his style is distinct from both of them). I spent a little time with him and he is an extremely humble, studious guy. You can tell that he's picked up tricks from every place that he's worked and altered and combined them to create his own unique style. He founded Lunarossa in 2006.
The grapes are grown around the Picenti mountains, which is very important for two reasons. First, the altitude allows you to have cooler climate tasting wines even though the region is rather far south. Second, the grapes are grown on the sea side of the mountains which allows for ocean breezes to cool the vineyards. I've always emphasized the importance of microclimates being able to produce classic wines even within regions where you would not necessarily expect it (e.g. Chateau Simone, Laible, etc.). These wines are somewhere between the Rhone and Burgundy in terms of weight which is pretty remarkable given that they are from Campania.
2014 Lunarossa Quartara - $36.99 ($139.96 4-pack)
2018 Lunarossa Quartara - $35.99
($135.96 4-pack)
2012 Lunarossa Borgomaestro - $41.99 ($159.96 4-pack)
2016 Lunarossa Borgomaestro - $36.99 ($139.96 4-pack)
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