Vinitaly 2017: 40 years of Passum and a tasting starring the rare Uvalino
Wednesday 5 April 2017
A limited edition to celebrate 40 years of Passum with the issue of vintage 2015, and Uvalino Uceline starring in a tasting of rare wines: Cascina Castlèt from Costigliole d’Asti is getting ready for Vinitaly 2017, the wine fair that will take place in Verona from Sun. 9th to Wed. 12th April.
Cascina Castlèt will be in Hall 10 (Piemonte), Stand L3.
40 YEARS OF PASSUM. The winemaker Mariuccia Borio wanted to celebrate in an original and elegant way the first 40 years of her Passum, the Barbera d’Asti that is produced with an accurate selection of the grapes and the withering technique. On this occasion they made a special box with six bottles each of which with a screen-printed label of a different color. The original label is a stylized red P, now the P is multiplied and colored.
The idea is by Giacomo Bersanetti, Sga Wine Desing, that has signed all the graphics and labels of this winery. “Customizing the bottle of Passum on the occasion of its 40th anniversary, through the use of colors other than red, has the aim of recounting the extraordinary and complex personality of this wine” says Bersanetti.
In order to emphasize this anniversary, also Cascina Castlèt stand at Vinitaly will be “dressed” with big pre-alphabetic P’s in the colors of nature, where Passum is created. “We select the best grapes of the harvest – says the oenologist Giorgio Gozzelino – and Passum is made only in the best vintages. The production is about 20.000 bottles, and it is loved especially in Switzerland and Northern Europe”. At Vinitaly there will be a preview tasting of Passum 2015, an exceptional vintage that will be issued in Autumn.
UVALINO, A RARE GRAPE VARIETY. Uvalino, an almost disappeared Piedmontese grape variety, will be starring in a tasting of rare wines at Vinitaly 2017, on Sunday 9th April at 3.00 pm, in front of an audience of buyers, journalists, masters of wine and master sommeliers from all over the world.
This is an initiative of the National Association Le Donne del Vino, that entrusted one of the world’s foremost experts of Italian native grapes, the journalist Ian D’Agata, with the task of communicating the importance of women winemakers in preserving ancient varieties that would otherwise be lost.
Many other grapes share the same history as Uvalino, an extremely rare variety from Piedmont once very widespread in the Asti area vineyards. It has been rediscovered by Mariuccia Borio, that for 27 years has believed and financed the University research aimed at preserving and promoting this cultivation on the hills of Costigliole.
A long research that has been an important economic investment: in 2003 it was also presented at the VII International Symposium of Oenology in Arcachon, organized by the University of Bordeaux, where the most important European wine researches are presented.
“They found out that Uvalino – says Mariuccia Borio – has a very has a very high content of Resveratrol, an antioxidant substance good for human health, whose concentration is 30/40 times higher than in other red wines”.
Cascina Castlèt has got around one and a half hectares of Uvalino in two vineyards, and produces approximately 5.000 bottles of this wine.
The wine Cascina Castlèt makes with Uvalino grapes is named Uceline. This name was not randomly picked, as in the early XVII century it was used in the Turin and Asti areas for grapes that were ripening so late that they were harvested when the vines had lost all their leaves, so much so that they were in large part eaten by birds (in Italian “uccelli”).
Infos: www.cascinacastlet.com