TOTO CORDE

Toto Corde is a wine of unmistakable originality — a sparkling rosé produced from the ancient Nocera grape on the biodynamic Nesci estate in Palizzi, an estate immersed in bergamot plantations whose aromatic influence on all the estate's wines is both real and distinctive. In this wine, the Nocera variety — whose ancient credentials in the Calabrian and Sicilian winemaking tradition are well established — is given a context so unexpected that the result is genuinely surprising: a sparkling rosé of notes of oranges and lemons, full and persistent on the palate, with rose petals in the aromatic background and the unmistakable presence of bergamot threading through from nose to finish.

The Nocera grape in purity, as demonstrated by Cambria Winery's Rosso del Levriero, is capable of producing wines of genuine refinement and softness when handled with care. In the sparkling rosé style, the variety reveals a completely different dimension — one that the ancient winemakers of the Strait of Messina almost certainly never explored, but that the Nesci family's willingness to experiment with their ancient varieties has made possible.

The wine's aromatic profile is among the most unusual in the UniqueWines catalogue: citrus — oranges and lemons — combined with the delicate floral suggestion of rose petals and the distinctive, almost impossible-to-replicate note of bergamot that emerges from the specific combination of this grape, this soil, and this agricultural ecosystem of bergamot trees and olive groves. The palate is full and persistent, with the kind of depth that one does not always expect from a sparkling rosé.

Toto Corde is a wine for occasions of genuine celebration — for moments when the expected sparkling wine would be too ordinary, and when something with real character and real roots in an extraordinary place is called for. It is also a wine of considerable conversation value: there is nothing else quite like it.

Available through UniqueWines.