Lugana 'Il Gruccione' Nunzio Ghiraldi 2024
The Lugana "Il Gruccione" is a white wine with a fresh, fine, and delicate character that comes to life from Turbiana vines cultivated in the Sirmione countryside. It releases notes of citrus, white flowers, hints of fresh almond, touches of flint, and savory puffs. On the palate, it is characterized by an intriguing dualism between freshness and savoriness that makes the sip slender, clean, and satisfying.
The Lugana “Il Gruccione” by Nunzio Ghiraldi is a white wine made from Turbiana or Trebbiano di Lugana grapes, a historic vine of the area south of Lake Garda. We are indeed in the countryside of Sirmione, just a few kilometers away from a true Italian lake paradise. The label features a bird that also gives its name to the wine, the Gruccione, a colorful bird that has chosen the areas adjacent to Lake Garda as its breeding ground, making it all the more reason to visit these beautiful places that are home to excellent wines.
“Il Gruccione” Lugana by Nunzio Ghiraldi sees the Turbiana plants benefiting from the richness of a soil that is predominantly clay, which in this area has the characteristic of having formed after a glaciation and then sedimented, incorporating a lot of limestone and mineral salts. The harvest begins in September and is carried out entirely by hand; within the company, in fact, only weeding is mechanized, and then fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled steel tanks, the samematerial on which the final aging of a few months is carried out.
Nunzio Ghiraldi presents “Il Gruccione” with a bright straw yellow that immediately invites you to enjoy its aromas. Grapefruit, jasmine, and white peach are the three leading notes that delight us with their aromatic hints, which are finely punctuated by mineral and savory hints and light nuances of sage and almond. With a clean and vertically balanced sip, one is pleasantly struck by how the freshness and the mineral aspect are perfectly integrated with each other, creating a blend of flavors with striking persistence and appealing drinkability. “Il Gruccione” is therefore a Lugana that pairs perfectly with fish dishes, preferably from nearby Garda, such as a first or second course featuring pike. But it can also be a valid alternative to a sparkling wine during an aperitif; in short, we are faced with a wine that may not be very well known but once tasted and enjoyed will be hard to forget.