Cantina Alchemica - Giorgio Mercandelli

The Cantina Alchemica winery, which until a few years ago was known as RiLUCE, is a unique example of winemaking. Or rather, there are no boundaries or barriers that contain the enological possibilities and the expressiveness of taste. Giorgio Mercandelli is at the heart of the winery, and he is a courageous producer who has decided to cultivate vineyards that are over a hundred years old through a simple yet arduous approach. In the 1980s, after experimenting with organic agriculture on his father's farm and adopting the principles of biodynamic agriculture, he found his ideal dimension in the biotic philosophy. He became an interpreter of the grapes and the memory they preserve in their berries, and abandoned all use of any kind of substance in the various treatments. The alchemist is the leading figure in biotics. Through his work, he must bring the beauties of nature to light, making the invisible visible. That is how we get from light to wine. Through this perspective, we also rediscover the significance of origins, which are common to both man and nature.

Giorgio Mercandelli's Cantina Alchemica is located in the town of Canneto Pavese, in the heart of the Recoaro Valley nature park. Here Giorgio and his partner Sonia carefully cultivate the hillsides on which Barbera, Croatina and Uva Rara vines are planted, while Riesling is used for the white wines. Between the rows of vines, simple actions and feelings are adopted in order to preserve the uncontaminated landscape in its most natural form, rendering it a mirror of man's conscience. Only the strength of the plant's life is rewarded, without affecting any process. This type of agriculture is best understood through the concept of homeostatic power. It is the same micro-organisms present in the subsoil that nourish and protect the vine, maintaining a condition of stability through a process of self-regulation, and responding to external changes in the environment. From perfectly healthy grapes, which preserve the harmony of their history, comes a pure liquid capable of going beyond all limits. The birth of the grapes comes from the same forces that transform man. Giorgio Mercandelli's objective is to obtain evocative results, which are capable of whispering gustatory pleasure to the taste and going beyond concepts of terroir, variety, conflicts and trends by stimulating the palate through the frequencies that nature has provided for the fluid itself.

Giorgio Mercandelli's wines are liquid emotions and personal experiences, achieved through the alchemical process initiated within the grape cluster and brought to light by the biotic wine. They reflect the same forces that are imprinted in the memory of each individual vine. These wines can adapt to any food, without changing their nature and becoming food themselves. The fermentation of the grapes, harvested at a perfect degree of ripeness, takes place with only indigenous yeasts, inside inert containers, in order not to distort the memory of the fruit and the light enclosed within them. The macerations adopted are very long, lasting up to 120 days. After years of refinement in the bottle, the dynamic character is activated and the evolution of the memory inherent in the liquid emerges, regaining its lost colour and reassembling the features of its history. Time plays a leading role, as the ageing process lasts at least 5 to 7 years, with repeated tastings to assess when the bottles should be released on the market. Even the glass containers themselves have been specially designed to protect the contents from thermal, acoustic and vibrational shocks. Each label has a different colour and a letter that refers to a precise frequency of taste. The freedom of choice is yours. A bottle will be chosen according to which emotion one wishes to feel and experience, and each liquid, if listened to carefully, will be able to capture the palate, narrating the story from its memory. The aim is to go beyond organoleptic analysis, simply talking about feelings.

Discovering the labels of this winery is an experience for the soul, known as synesthesia. It allows the taster to rediscover our own origins by going beyond the concepts of space and time, through universal expressions in which there is the same creative force of the world. These are wines that illuminate the taste!