Il Mostro "Longana" Rosato Frizzante 2024

Pouring a slight haze, this slight, dry pét-nat streams tight apricot blossoms, pear skin and gooseberry along a light and zippy palate. Aromas of red berries, spices, flowers, and herbs float from the glass. The wine is juicy and dry on the palate with bright notes of strawberry, cherry, and peach to complement the its fresh, chalky texture and nuances of underbrush and pithy white grapefruit on the finish. Firm acid holds it all together to make it the exciting glass of sparkling rosé. Refreshing and honest.

Il Mostro was conceived as a new experimental project from Poggio Anima. This is a single-vineyard wine from the Monteodorisio Vineyard in Chieti, Abruzzo. The Marchesani family has been farming this since the mid-1960s, and following the marriage of Sebastano Jasci to Lucia Marchesani, the newly married couple embarked on a new frontier of higher quality farming. Sebastiano pushed for organic farming and became one of the first certified organic vineyards in Italy in 1978. Today their son Nicola has taken over the business side of things, and his wife Federica manages the winemaking.

The names of the wines are derived from children’s bedtime warnings throughout Europe. "Longana" is a mythological creature that calls the caves above the cliffs of the northern Adriatic Sea home. "Longana" have limbs of a goat, which aide in traversing the mountains of Alto Adige and Veneto but are frequently spotted in the sea. They are stunningly beautiful creatures that have been known to woo humans with their highly evolved knowledge of nature. Their intuitiveness with the spirits of nature is what prompted this wine to be named after these beautiful creatures.

The Montepulciano was hand-harvested in mid-September from three blocks on a northwest facing ridge at 700 feet in elevation. The majority of the grapes were cooled down at the winery and fermented at a cool 60ºF with the remaining grapes being whole-bunch pressed to tank with a bit of skin contact and chilled very cold to prevent fermentation and held in tank. Primary fermentation occurred naturally in a sealed stainless-steel tank and when the wine reached 15 g/L residual sugar the tank was cooled down in order to hold the ferment at 10 g/L. 

The wine was bottled and topped with more of the unfermented juice from tank and the bottles were crown sealed. Secondary fermentation occurred over the next 2-3 months and the wine was released without disgorgement.

Note the 2024 vintage no longer carries the certified organic label due to the timing of new laws passed in the US, but nothing has changed on the viticultural or winemaking side. The farming practices remain certified organic even though the wine itself is no longer certified organic for this vintage.