Giovanni Almondo Bricco Ciliegie Arneis

• This white wine is pale bright yellow in colour
• On the nose it has ripe, vibrant aromas of lemon and lime zest, apple, crushed stone, liquorice, mint and wild herbs
• On the palate has a strong minerality
• Giovanni Almondo Bricco Ciliegie Arneis has a long and chewy finish with notes of wild herbs

Hand picking the grapes into 15kg boxes, with careful selection both before and during harvest. At the winery, the berries underwent a third selection before they were gentle pressing with a pneumatic press. Fermentation took place in stainless-steel vats with indigenous yeasts for 10 months. Following ageing for a further six months in stainless steel before bottling.

The single vineyard “Bricco delle Ciliegie” is from arneis on a 6 hectare south east facing plot on the Vittori hill. 340-370 metres above sea level, in the municipality of Monta. Years ago this area was covered with cherry (Ciliegie in Italian) trees, which gave the name to this wine. Soils here are mostly sandy with a small percentage of silt and clay.

At the top of the hillside the soil is coarse sand and gravel from 2.5 million years ago. Closer to the valley soils are slightly more calcareous and structured, rich in shellfish, with ‘Sand of Asti’ from 4.5 million years ago. Vines are 35 years old and Guyot trained with vertical shoot positioning.

Giovanni Almondo is a family estate in Monta, in the Roero hills north of Alba. Although the Almondo family has lived there for over 600 years, Domenico Almondo was the first, in the early 1980s, to make wine from their 18 hectares.

Assisting him is his sons Stefano and Domenico. The commune of Monta is geologically divided. Giovanni Almondo’s Arneis achieves great aromatic expression in the higher-acidity, sandy soils of the northern vineyards. While his Nebbiolo thrives in the south on slightly lower-lying calcareous soils of marine origin.