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Gambellara is a sleepy nest. The town sign lies overturned at the entrance to the village, and not just since yesterday. It's humid in the early morning, a red and black Forza Champion flag hangs limply from the balcony, and only in the bar on the main square do you meet a few people. They all help out right then and there. La Biancara? You want to go to Angiolino? Yes, yes, you have to leave the village and go up the hill, and at the same time all heads go up and over to his vineyards.

(Photo: Stefano Menti)

Angiolino Maule works on the periphery - not just that of Gambellara. But although Maule is an outsider in the world of wine, he is far from being a marginal figure. On the contrary, Maule's voice can be heard far and wide, as he is the initiator and mastermind of the vinnatur movement, one of the most controversial and at the same time exciting associations of recent years.

In the meantime, the movement has 142 members, 142 lateral thinkers in wine. Most of them come from Italy, but there are also a few French, Austrians and Slovenians, one Slovak, one Czech and one Portuguese. They collectively and radically embody the counter-design to conventional viticulture and yet are individualists in their own vineyards - what they all have in common is organic-sustainable viticulture, be it biodynamic or organic, with spontaneous fermentation and long lees. Then there are personal priorities such as long maceration times and fermentation with the skins even in white wines, bread trunk sprays, tea preparations and much more. However, one by no means stops at new developments in viticulture. They look deep into the experimental world of the organic sector and collaborate with universities. The dissemination of knowledge in solidarity is even explicitly mentioned in the movement's manifesto - although there are other points as well: For example, it explicitly refers to the natural character of wines and thus immediately knows itself to be in a dilemma, since there are no explicit guidelines for this. For anyone who has ever clicked through the homepages of various industrial winemakers will find permanent references to respecting natural factors - even if they are as flimsy as they may seem.

Transparency is another buzzword, renunciation another: namely enzymes and filters and often also sulphur in the wine cellar (which led to fierce controversy among wine critics) as well as systemic agents in the vineyard. They really respect their soil and are constantly working on its natural balance.

(Photo: La Bianchara)

The wines themselves reflect this individuality and - in their distinct individuality - are probably not designed for beginners. Some white wines are orange, have tannins like a Barolo and aroma notes that occasionally knock even calibrated tasters on the head. You don't always have to like them, but they are amazing and original islands in an ocean of streamlined wines.

Angiolino Maule is assisted by his sons Francesco and Alessandro, who not only share the work with their father but also share his philosophy. It is then Francesco who, up the mountain, unfolds the first fragments of the great puzzle that makes the wines and the conception of La Biancara so special.

"We produced our first biodynamic vintage in 2000, but actually my parents have always worked organically anyway. That is, since the late 80s when they bought the farm and vineyards." Today, they have a total of nine hectares, almost entirely planted with Garganega, the grape variety that is the permanent counter-proof to the cliché of cheap pizza wine in neighbouring Soave. In general, the cornerstones of the regions are similar. You move over volcanic rock, whose humus layer does not always cover the coal-black basalt, and watch the pergolas grow.

Not all the vineyards that stretch into the hills above the house belong to the Maules, but theirs are usually easy to spot. And as is so often the case with organic winegrowers, it is not so much the gnarled canes that attract attention. Rather, it is what happens between the vine rows. Grasses and flowers grow knee-high there. Special legumes make perfect use of the nutrient content in the soil, and a huge compost heap piles up in the background. "We spray copper solutions against peronospora," Francesco admits, "we'd like to do without, but we haven't found a suitable alternative yet." But they are always on the lookout - trying to work as close to nature as possible requires constant experimentation. The latest discovery is AQ 10, and what sounds like a chemical warfare agent is actually a biological one and is used to combat oidium. "It's a fungus that eats fungi," Francesco tells us - in this case downy mildew, a cannibalistic act that shows that the world of natural winemakers is by no means abandoning itself to nature without a fight, as is so often assumed.

(Photo: La Bianchara)

"Everything is about balances," Francesco clarifies, "about the most perfect possible balance between soil and plant. We don't think you can achieve that with the palette of pesticides they're spraying through the gardens around us." At the same time, he points to the Janus-faced nature of the Maules and the fact that they are by no means refusing to embrace the innovations of science. "We look back and use old techniques where we consider them better, but at the same time we work hard with scientists and universities to find contemporary answers to these traditional methods.

At the top, you look out over the hills of Gambellara, at the steep vineyards stretching over hilltops. At the highest point, there is a building open on two sides, containing equipment and a lot of nets, similar to huge fishing nets. These are used to hang the grapes for Recioto, which the wind dries in the winter and spring months.

The wind is whistling around our ears now, too, and when clouds start to gather, we retreat to the cellar for the time being, where things continue to be doubly exciting. The great natural wine project that Angiolino Maule has been running in his vineyards upstairs for a good decade is also being carried out in his cellar in a similarly consistent manner. This sounds logical, but it is by no means a matter of course. Many winegrowers work according to organic principles in the garden, but a lot of them have to hear that the beautiful organic wine world is over when they reach the cellar door. Pure-breeding yeasts then come into play, there is a lot of sulphuring, filtering and fining.

The Maules make no secret of the fact that consistently low-intervention work in the cellar is associated with setbacks. "In the first few years, we didn't produce just one barrel of vinegar," Francesco says. Learning processes like those that can happen to any winemaker - except that Angiolino did not experiment with new technologies and the wide range of yeasts, enzymes, etc., but went the opposite way and produced his wines with as few additives as possible.

(Photo: La Bianchara)

Even today, his back labels provide detailed information about this. All the values are listed and sometimes also the fact that the wine is produced without sulphur - where this is not the case, the absolute minimum of sulphur is used. The temperature is not controlled, but generally ranges between 22 and 24 degrees, which means that you can look for intrusive primary aromas in the finished wine for a long time. This is also the case with the Masieri, La Biancaras entry wine, which first reveals floral notes and then successively adds orange zest, herbs and lime. The acidity is right, the length even more so.

All these experiments are constant attempts in search of the ultimate wine. Sometimes maceration, sometimes fermentation with the skins, sometimes whole cluster pressing, sometimes different woods. Maule's wines are a work in progress, but always spectacular and impressive. With his attempt to work as minimalistically as possible, he is certainly one of the great avant-gardists of the contemporary wine world.

Anyone who believes that this organic approach is supported by esoteric principles is mistaken. Rather, a sustainable concept reigns that one would also like to discover in other winemakers. And so Angiolino has his wines and those of his comrades-in-arms at vinnatur scientifically tested and chemically examined, and is not afraid to exclude members if elementary criteria are not met. Above the desire to push things to the limit, however, there is above all a qualitative demand and the very essential concept that his wines should be digestible and drinkable.

(Photo: Stefano Menti)

In any case, they go very well with afternoon pasta. The Pico is sometimes vinified in three single vineyards, whose wines are all carried by elegance, minerality, complex aromas, fine acidity and immense length. The Sassaia, once fermented with the skins (the Maules now do without, as long maceration times make the grape unrecognisable), is a true representative of its volcanic terroir - taut, lean and crystal clear - while the Taibane is the most mineral of them all, but without being stingy with juicy peach, salt and honey (a little botrytis was involved). Instead of nodding off comfortably afterwards, we decide to visit one of Francesco's friends.

From La Biancara and the Maules it's only a Katzensprung to Davide Spillare, but without Francesco's help it would have been quite impossible to find him. Davide's winery is in the middle of the village labyrinth of Gambellara. There is a lot of activity in front of his house, as Davide is in the process of building his own cellar. So far, it is more of a makeshift, a kind of garage where what was originally probably called garage wine is produced. In his garage - unlike those in Saint-Émilion - there are still raffia bottles and wine barrels (not a Maserati or two), and his teacher is not Michel Rolland but Angiolino Maule. When Davide started producing his own wines in 2006, he was already familiar with the Maules' world of ideas, so it was obvious to adapt them for himself as well. The step that followed was radical. Father and grandfather were still suppliers for the cooperative, so the spontaneous conversion to biodynamics was not a simple step. The vineyards needed to recover from years of spraying by the Spillares, but both the vines and the two old men came to the realisation that Davide's concept was and is the right one.

The changeover was also accompanied by a few new plantings, all Garganega, all Guyot-grown. However, where the old vines are healthy and deeply rooted, he continues to tend his pergolas. It's not much in total - 8,000, sometimes 9,000 bottles - but what Davide makes from it has a hand and a foot.

(Photo: Werner Hinterberger)

The Bianco Rigoli is so orange that it hardly passes for a white wine, has herbs on the nose and pepper on the palate, is long and juicy and perfectly structured. Davide macerates his Garganega and thus also remains true to his own and original world of ideas; and does not let himself be upset even by failures, which he reports almost enthusiastically: "It's all a question of experience," he says. In the first few years he struggled with reductive wines, but in the meantime he has found the right balance and gets just about everything out of his grapes that is possible. He macerates the Vecchie Vigne for a whole day - it is now floral, with fine orange notes, a taut acidity, harmonious, elegant and fragrant, even after a few minutes.

Davide Spillare is not only in our latitudes a completely unknown number. Even in Italy, he is almost only to be found in the immediate vicinity of his garage. And in Japan. A few years ago, a delegation of Japanese importers started buying his wines, and since then, his Vecchie Vigne has been available in Gambellara - and in Tokyo.

And his Recioto Spumante. This is one of the classics of the region - the grapes are dried through the winter and the fermentation is then stopped at about 60 to 70 remaining grams of sugar. The Recioto then undergoes a bottle fermentation that ends at 20 grams of residual sugar. Behind a fine perlage and a rather baroque body and crisp acidity, hazelnuts, tangerines, honey and candied fruits are only briefly hidden.

This is a nice way to spend time in a garage, and when the hammering in the future cellar falls silent, the two older generations join us. The raffia bottles with ten-year-old Recioto still come from the time when they produced for their own use and for the cooperative. The cooperative is not as dominant as its counterparts in Soave, but it still determined the course of events for a long time. The farmers often had such small gardens that there was little point in producing independently.

(Photo: Werner Hinterberger)

Half an hour later, with Stefano Menti, Gambellara's third free spirit, the structures of the area are deciphered even more finely. Besides the cooperative, it was mainly Zonin - Italy's largest private wine producer - that guided Gambellara's fortunes. Zonin's empire, however, only has its base camp here. Its holdings stretch far beyond the Veneto to the USA. And even if Zonin follows a completely different philosophy than Maule, Spillare or Menti, he is an occasional partner in the attempt to get analytically closer to the essence of Garganega. "We use their laboratories, sometimes cooperate where overlaps occur," Stefano explains as he pours a first glass of Garganega. The world of the natural winemakers in Gambellara is pleasantly undogmatic.

Menti also retains a certain independence. He does not belong to vinnatur. He seems rather uncomfortable being tied into the corset of a group, even though he actually shares all the principles. Even that of the symbiosis of traditional techniques, combined with the ventures of permanent experimentation. For example, his wines are kept as cool as possible before fermentation in order to avoid the use of any chemical agents. The fermentation itself, however, is then no longer controlled. The wines are fermented spontaneously, and sulphur is added only shortly before bottling. Menti is fully aware of the risks, but he also takes them consciously. "Of course I know that the wines can tip over, that they can oxidise or develop bacterial problems. But I also know that the wines gain in independence and represent not only their origin, but also what I think about wine. And in the end, they taste exactly the way I want them to." So do I, by the way.

The Paiele, Menti's base wine, comes from the five-hectare single vineyard of the same name and is actually far too complex to pass for a base wine. Its length is also impressive, its balance and lightness. And also this fine tautness that characterises all of Gambellara's wines. "The volcanic soil," Stefano is sure. In addition, the old vines provide a strong backbone, so that we are mostly dealing with concentrated, but lively wines.

(Photo: Werner Hinterberger)

It is too late for a drive through the vineyards, so we climb past old cement cisterns (which Stefano plans to fill again next year) into the Mentis attic. There - with open windows and natural ventilation - hang the grapes for the Recioto and its Vin Santo. According to the chronicles and Francesco Maule, Vin Santo actually originated in the Veneto, more precisely in Gambellara. Maule is not yet completely satisfied with the results, which is why we have to fall back on Stefano Menti's Vin Santo for the time being. This is not available every year, as it happens that the fermentation gets stuck from time to time due to the enormous sugar concentration, and it can happen that three to four years pass until the end of fermentation, but those who have the patience are rewarded almost like Christmas. The wine is packed with nuts and candied orange peel, pine needles and acacia honey - it delivers, in short, a spectacular spectrum of aromas.

The Vin Santo closes the evening. After that, nothing works. Before that, however, there is. Riva Arsiglia is Menti's favourite and oldest vineyard, the vines there are up to 70 years old, and it is from there that his best wine comes. The Garganega is left on its lees for a year before it is bottled unfiltered. The finish is initially dense and floral, with almonds and peaches joining in later. Monte del Cuca, Menti's third Garganega, rounds off the different styles; it is the most opulent of the three, powerful, juicy and dense.

Menti bottles a total of 40,000 bottles, a modest amount, but exactly what he can manage on his seven hectares alone. "If I had more, I'd have to hire someone and possibly accept a loss in quality." So, on the other hand, he, like the other two winegrowers in Gambellara, still has the time to continue working on his natural wine experiments - because the principle of non-intervention is more labour-intensive and nerve-wracking than it is generally assumed. But it is worth it.

The Gambellara DOC area in the wine guide

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