DONNA CARINA

Donna Carina is one of Raffaele Noviello's most creative and courageous productions — among the first Metodo Classico sparkling wines made from the Greco di Tufo grape in Italy. The Greco di Tufo DOCG is celebrated for its still white wine expression — a mineral, volcanic white of genuine complexity — but the idea of vinifying it as a traditional method sparkling wine is an innovation of real originality that demonstrates both the estate's willingness to experiment and Noviello's understanding of the grape's natural qualities.

The production process brings the Greco di Tufo through two fermentation stages. The first takes place at controlled temperature in the estate's facility in Montefalcione. The second fermentation and the prise de mousse are then achieved through the long Martinotti method — at least twelve months in autoclave — followed by a minimum of six months in bottle before release. This extended secondary fermentation develops the complexity and persistent effervescence that distinguish a serious sparkling wine from a merely adequate one.

The Greco di Tufo grape brings to this sparkling wine the same qualities that make it distinguished as a still white: the particular mineral character of the volcanic tufo soils in which it is cultivated, the characteristic aromatic profile of white fruits and citrus, and the firm acidity that is essential for sparkling wine of this ambition and duration. In sparkling form, these qualities are amplified and refined by the autolytic complexity that extended lees contact — in autoclave — delivers.

Donna Carina is a wine for the most attentive admirers of Italian sparkling wine innovation — those who appreciate the courage and creativity that producing a Greco di Tufo Metodo Classico requires, and who are curious to discover what this celebrated appellation's grape reveals in an entirely unexpected context.

Available through UniqueWines.