AL I PRA

Al i Pra is the Riesling Renano white of the Brandolini Winery — a wine that demonstrates how the great Rhenish Riesling variety expresses itself in the specific conditions of the Oltrepò Pavese, where the Brandolini family has grown this variety alongside its indigenous Croatina and Pinot Noir vines since the estate's founding in 1873. Produced only in favourable vintages — the same selective approach applied to the Luogo d'Agosto — Al i Pra represents the estate's most considered engagement with an international variety that has earned a permanent place in the Oltrepò Pavese's viticultural landscape.

The production process follows a protocol of minimal intervention and maximum variety expression: grapes in cassette, placed whole in press — whole-cluster pressing that preserves the most delicate aromatic compounds — fermented at low temperature to protect those aromatics through the conversion of sugar to alcohol. The resulting wine is straw yellow in colour; a clear nose with ripe white fruit, balsamic herbs, and hydrocarbons — the particular petrol-like note that great Riesling from suitable terroir develops and that is one of the most distinctive and most debated aromatic signatures in wine.

Balanced, warm, of great structure, and persistence: the four palatal qualities the estate identifies for Al i Pra — a precise description of a wine that achieves the structural ambition associated with Riesling from its greatest European expressions while carrying the specific character of the Oltrepò Pavese's mineral Apennine foothills soils.

The Brandolini family's 150-year commitment to their nine-hectare estate across three Oltrepò Pavese municipalities has given them an understanding of which varieties thrive in which conditions, and Al i Pra demonstrates that Riesling Renano, in the right vintage and the right hands, can achieve genuine distinction in this often-overlooked Lombard wine territory.

Available through UniqueWines.