Bergianti - Gargallo di Carpi, Italy
~ Gianluca Bergianti’s on a Hendrixian mission: a visionary conductor of grape and ground. ~
PREFACE
Over our years of travel we’ve visited some 1000 wineries - this stated for perspective. Experience suggests, if lucky you may cross paths with a genuinely extraordinary person or two along the way. Someone who looks at the same things we do, seeing things we do not.
Five-hundred winemakers could work the same vines - perhaps just one will create unexpected, uncharted magic. Who? How? Why?
A concrete example: countless millions have played guitar; from those strings who’s composed their voice as Jimi Hendrix has?
From our travels over all these years, two other winemakers (both in Italy) struck this same chord - a tone distinguished and immediate: Samuele Heydi in Cinque Terre and Ca del Vent’s Antonio Tornincasa in Lombardia; each grasping what most could not imagine.
Whatever it is in them - Ariel-like - two Prosperos to your bottles, transforms and enchants us. No illusion, but newfound truth.
October 1, 2018, Gargallo di Capri, Italy
A long day. Jet lag system-wide. Patches of early Fall rain toward late afternoon. Little car pulls up - largely unknown winery - threads we’d heard - things original afoot.
Sheepishly tired: me. We’d neither of us met or spoke to one another before.
Who is this crazy person all the way from Oregon?
Who is this down-to-his earth George Harrison-ish fellow here near Sorbara village?
In minutes my energy level burns of relentless curiosity.
When the conversation, touring, learning, tasting and sharing conclude, with 100% conviction - we must find the way to work with Gianluca Bergianti.
Now, 807 days later - timing issues, label issues, supply issues, Covid issues, unexpected issues - of wanting and waiting to share these genius wines, they are at our doorstep.
In 2019 Laura, our brilliantly talented collaborator and writer extraordinaire, also visited Gianluca.
From here she will speak to you of Gianluca Bergianti.
BERGIANTI - GARGALLO DI CARPI, ITALY
“THE SUBSTANCE BECOMES THE PROCESS ITSELF”
To tell this story, it helps to share a memory. In his sorbara and salamino vineyards - while speaking to us of the vines - winemaker Gianluca can’t keep his hands still.
He plucks a few stray leaves off the cane and sighs with ease like a sculptor who just hit the final chisel stroke. “I love this work,” he says. Unlike the figures inside of stones, Bergianti’s substance is alive. His joy is that there is no final chisel stroke. His substance is moving and his imagination is moving.
Welcome the wines of Bergianti! Our initial offering is the first in the USA. We want to stress from the beginning that these wines are less beverages and more the steeping of a passionate body of agricultural and artistic work. If that sounds uninviting, know that they are hauntingly and wildly tasty. They taste like the earth, and the earth they are anchored in is outside of Modena, in the town of Gargallo di Carpi.
These are mainly sparkling wines, Lambrusco as we commonly call it. Lambrusco in the sense that it is kicking and screaming alive out of the ground, genuine and earthbound. Gargallo di Carpi is just down the road from the village called Sorbara so indeed this is the home of Lambrusco di Sorbara. You cannot talk about Lambrusco without talking about which Lambrusco grape variety you mean. The region from outside of Modena down to Reggio Emilia, up through Parma and Cremona, to Mantova in the north where Villa Picta is located in the north and down through Bologna striped with hyper-regional grape varieties. The zone near TerreVive sits on the bedrock of silty-clay and sand on the Modenese plain with a small bit of limestone in the soil. Here Sorbara is known to reach its most expressive fragrances, and Lambrusco di Salamino grows alongside it. At Bergianti, you will also find plantings of Grechetto gentile, Malvasia, Moscato, Trebbiano di Modena.
These varieties are hyper-regional and Gianluca believes in preserving them. Fossils were found near Po river giving evidence that there were lowland forests where wild grapes were growing during the late Neolithic Bronze Age — this variety is called Vitis vinifera sylvestris, and would bear little resemblance to what wine-lovers drink today. Scholars believe that the grapes brought to the Po valley by Romans and Greeks crossed with this Vitis vinifera sylvestris. These imported varieties brought from hot southerly climes cross-polinated with the indigenous varieties existing already to create new crossbreeds better suited to the colder and rainier climate. It’s not necessarily true that Lambrusco varieties are all related, but they share commonalities with each other and all emerge from this region. (note — most of this information comes from Marisa Fontana’s extensive writing on Lambrusco grape varieties, which you should seek out whenever it is possible)
A look at the Terrevive property shows that this farm is not a typical grape-growing place. At some angles, the observer might think the vines are mere edges to fields of crops, interplaying with the many dimensions of other life to be found on the farm. The loamy-sandy terrain is incredibly fertile and supports animals, vegetables, and fruit trees as well as the vines. This dynamism between plants, animals, and humans adds to the expression of the place felt in the wine. One might argue that these old Lambrusco varieties respond better to the polycultural methods because it’s how they were traditionally farmed. Something wakes up when the farming echoes back to the past.
The entire farm is operated using biodynamic principles with a focus on building and maintaining the health of the soil long-term. Gianluca hopes to nurture his farm as if it were a single organism. There are no chemicals used on the farm or the vineyard.The plots of vegetable and grain cultivation are meshed in with the plots for grapevines. Manure from the animals is used for compost for treating the crops, the aromatic herbs are used as sprays in the vineyards, and the farm as organism feeds those working the land. There is a basketball court to feed the soul.
Gianluca farms four hectares of vines planted in the year 2009. The majority of his plantings are Lambrusco di Sorbara and Lambrusco di Salamino. Lambrusco di Sorbara is a sterile male and needs to be planted alongside another variety in order to pollinate. Typically, its mate is Lambrusco di Salamino. All of the genetic material in Bergianti’s vineyards comes from cuttings of much older Lambrusco vines obtained from historic vineyards in the region. Gianluca says that the vineyard is planted densely to encourage competition between plants and temper their natural vigor. The work in the vineyard is all done by hand, pruned guyot-style with arched canes encouraged to grow high to support photosynthesis and pulmonary metabolism of the plant. There is cover crop planted, which is mowed and composted and added to the base of the vines in the autumn for fertilizer. Gianluca uses a number of sprays and biodynamic preps. Some of his sprays are made from aromatic herbs grown on the vineyard: oregano, chamomile, and mustard. Others come from animal waste products.
During our visit, Gianluca points out his experimental vineyard: only four rows wide, with planted crops on both sides, and then another four rows and more crops on the opposite side. Each year he plants either cereal or legumes in the zones not occupied by grape vines, alternating the crop each year. The crop rotation is intended to build nutrient and mineral in the soil, switching between organisms that take from and add to the soil differently. Where is the line here between vineyard and farm? His technique aims to create balance in the soil so that the grapes can be the highest possible quality. He hopes that leaving large swaths of open space between the grape vines helps with air flow and humidity; but this practice takes a large commitment of space that other farmers might prefer to fill to the brim with grape vines.
There are some who make Lambrusco who have turned to organic or biodynamic farming, but they are still in the minority. Yet within this small group it is rare to see someone applying the range of learned techniques that Gianluca is implementing at Bergianti. He was an enology student, working at Castello di Ama in Gaiole in Chianti in Tuscany while completing his thesis. He also worked at the Barbaresco producer Piero Busso in both the vineyard and the cellar. His work synthesizes both of these experiences, and more: moving toward the future with new ideas, experiments, and adjustments.
In addition to all of his farming and winemaking activities, Gianluca engages with his community to teach children and adults alike about organic and biodynamic farming. He runs a program called “Aia Gaia” that seeks to show people how “farm work is not only a way to sustain oneself but a founding element of a more just and sustainable society.” Gianluca proves that social engagement on the land is the highest nourishment of the land. His wine is really an invitation to be involved in the natural landscape: your landscape wherever you find it.
Gianluca is an extremist. It doesn’t have to be like this, and it almost never is. His style is old-fashioned by nature but its application here is modern and pragmatic making way for the realest, livingest expression of what is there and what will be there. Gianluca thinks there was a Roman farm on his property — at the table while we are tasting, he pulls out a few stone or terra cotta handles of old pots excavated on the property. It’s a good place to grow vines. One life is very brief, the Romans only had so much time, might as well get started on tending the vines right away.
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After the grapes are harvested, Gianluca simply follows them along their way to being wine.With a series of climatic challenges in his first vintages (first wines made from this property in 2013), he has not always made the same wines each year. His obsession with quality in the vineyard leads to a simple, precise vinification.
The cellar is small but glisteningly clean and specific. The custom cement tanks which Gianluca designed based on his work in Barbaresco are the centerpiece of the cellar. Their imposing size reminds me of the unearthed Roman relics, but with stainless steel fittings and a space-age feeling. Their flat bottom makes cleaning easy and the cement material allows for a small dose of oxygen in the wines during fermentation. He also uses stainless steel for the first fermentation. He shows us some copper mixing tools that he uses to combat reduction in the wines when he tastes it. He chooses to clean his tanks and equipment with grappa, a distilled grape spirit, to eliminate flavors coming from anything but grapes. Every tool is chosen with thought, nothing is extraneous or unconsidered.
The wines are alive, natural by any definition. The wines are fermented with a native pied-de-cuve yeast that gets a microscopic dose of 2 grams per liter of sulfur. This is the only addition anywhere in the winemaking process, only enough to build a strong yeast culture. No sulfur is added anywhere else in the winemaking process. Gianluca explains that sulfur can destroy some of the important yeasts needed for secondary fermentation: the treasured bubbles of Lambrusco.
Bergianti creates both metodo classico and metodo ancestrale style sparkling wines. Gianluca loves the flavors and development that come about in the metodo classico aging, especially with Sorbara. The idea of perfecting this process thrills him.
Perhaps the most surprising element in the Bergianti story is that the bottles go back under the soil to play out their second fermentation in silence and coolness. Gianluca built an underground ghiacciaia, or natural cement icebox to store and age wine. The space is 80 square meters and totally dark, silent, and naturally cool. In concept it is simple, but in looks it is brutalist Hobbiton. Gianluca calls it Area 51. The structure is covered by earth and planted with hazelnuts and maples. This is a style of construction inspired by early ice storage buildings — it requires no artificial temperature control to maintain a constant temperature. Here the bottles sit in utter silence until they are disgorged and released with no dosage.
“I’m an extremist, a no-half measures guy. Maybe it will make sense in the future.”
Gianluca thinks natural wine shouldn’t be thought of in isolation from other
“kinds” of wine.Why alienate the earth’s voice from the conversation about quality wines?
One of the fears in loving wine is that our preferences will come to dictate the way that wine is made. Perhaps we grow to love the flavor of a wine without understanding that the making of the wine is demanding on the soil somehow or that the winemaker finds the process boring. We taste an ocean of sameness as time goes by, rather than encountering a range of beauty’s avenues. Perhaps we do not realize that we are the creators of this ocean.
Gianluca is not tethered to a particular outcome but he is tethered to the life of process. He has executed all the steps in his process as completely as possible and time will show what he will make with it. As he says about his work, the substance becomes the process itself. As long as this is true the quality of his wines will soar. His production of wines differs each year based on his own scruples and incredibly high personal standards. The Bergianti wines will more perfectly align with themselves through the proof of spectrum. One will not taste a wash of sameness but rather an organically shifting palate of Sorbara and Salamino, similar to the ever-shifting practices and plant life co-mingling on the vineyard.
Gianluca chooses informed technique where it is appropriate, and rawness where it can be expressed and enjoyed. We do not look at his minimal winemaking style with the soft lens of pity that some proponents of natural wines employ when depicting their favorite makers — ever notice how some people write about biodynamic/natural winemakers like Old Testament farmers cursed by locusts? Gianluca is not a farmer shaking his fist at the heavens and cursing his fate, though he has had his fair share of weather disappointments; his first crop almost all his grapes were destroyed by hail. He considers himself very lucky. It is one-dimensional to say of natural wine, “it’s just grapes and nothing else!” as if the wine is making itself. It is also one-dimensional to think a person has anything to do with the way wine is.
It is beauty calmly instructing vines on themselves. This beauty is the reward of portraying the instinct of the vintage, as well as the self-doubt and the affirmation of the artist. Gianluca must always be listening forward, imparting the beauty of this work to others and opening access where there hasn’t been. He does this in a structured way with his assistant Dani and others who join him on the farm for work and in a less formal way with the people he invites to the farm simply to enjoy the fresh air, the herb garden, and the organic food. The wine is full with the life he has put into it.
We are so thrilled to be working with Gianluca and his wines. Indeed, it has been more than 800 days since our first visit and we have missed having them each day. Maybe in the future it will make sense, he said in an interview. We think it makes sense now.
Welcome the wines of Bergianti, a guiding light of the next generation of Lambrusco!
THESE WINES ARRIVE ON OR ABOUT 12/23
Bergianti Fine Metodo Classico Rosato 2015 (Wine arrives 12/23)
A rich frothy 100% sorbara with biscuit and rose powder power. From Gianluca: “Although our vineyards are physically out of the limits of the DOC Sorbara, this grape variety, finds its ideal terrain here: sand and loam. We think that this grape variety is the absolute best for the champenoise method . A long period of natural fermentation in its own yeasts. Sophisticated and persistent.” $25.00
Bergianti PerFranco Rosato Frizzante 2019 (Wine arrives 12/23)
PerFranco comes from the wine that neighborhood kind would sit in the square drinking from big glass bowls with ice and lemon. Gianluca remembers his grandfather drinking it in the square. 100% salamino di santa croce. It tastes of lemon skin and gentian or pine herbs. It is made in the cement tanks and fermented in the ancestral method with a calm bubbly texture. $22.50
Bergianti Rosso Metodo Classico 2014 (Wine arrives 12/23)
The most traditional Lambrusco interpretation of the bunch, but wrapped in a dramatic winter spice gown. Bergianti Rosso is a blend of 80% salamino and 20% sorbara, fermented fully red. It is rich with aromas of fragrant woods and dark purple fruits. There have been a few different disgorgements of this wine — this one is a later disgorgement and has a lot of density and power as a result of extended time on lees. Gianluca has only been able to make this wine in a few years of his career, for it is not always ideal to fully macerate the red grapes as a result of fungal problems. Our personal interpretation of the Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce. Dynamic with a good level of acidity it is enjoyed at its best after a good period of natural fermentation. $21.50
Bergianti San Vincent Rosato Frizzante 2019 (Wine arrives 12/23)
The San Vincent wine is inspired by a trip to the Boulard cellar in Champagne and the idea that Sorbara and Pinot meunier could be related. “An ancient clone of Lambrusco Sorbara that gives it a typical slight acidity and tones of raspberry.” This wine is salty and serious, with just a bit of color from the light red skins. The label depicts a young girl riding the back of a wolf. St Vincent is the saint of wine, beekeeping, and long engaging conversations with nature. $24.00
Bergianti Steve Bianco Frizzante 2019 (Wine arrives 12/23)
Grechetto gentile re-fermented in bottle, metodo ancestrale. “We managed to give our Grechetto Gentile a light and carefree look. Wine that is characterized by great drinking, acidity and if you drink it young, its tropical side emerges.” $24.00
(LB)
Click on each wine for more detail.
(instructed throughout by Camillo Donati’s Everybody calls it Lambrusco)