4 July 2014
There is the air of Lake Garda in the fine wines of Cantrina - Eco di Bergamo
«Free exercise in style», is how Cristina Inganni and Diego Lavo sum up their way of interpreting the craft of winemaking.
They do this in Cantrina, a tiny hamlet in the municipality of Bedizzole, a western offshoot of the morainic hills surrounding the Brescia side of Lake Garda. From here the lake cannot be seen, but the effect on the climate is still felt, so much so that it is included in the territory protected by the regulations of the new Valtènesi DOC. But denomination aside, it is precisely that «free exercise in style» in interpretation that distinguishes the wines of Cantrina, which are born from the six hectares of vines cultivated with painstaking care by Diego Lavo (by the way, they are in the process of «converting» to organic). (...)
(...) In the cellar - and this is where Cristina Inganni's taste comes into play even more than the oenological technique - these characteristics are indulged with the aim of obtaining wines that are respectful of their origin, integral, balanced, in a word true. And that they have a virtue that the years of the spasmodic search for concentrations has been guiltily forgotten by many: a drinkability that is not easy but pleasant, suave to use an obsolete term but which renders the idea well. The highest expression of this approach can be found in Valtènesi's most representative wine, Groppello. A red wine that expresses its best characteristics through its fruity aromas and decisive yet graceful and fresh body. It goes up in structure with the Zerdì, a red wine based on Rebo (a vine born from a cross between Merlot and Teroldego) and reaches the top with the Nepomuceno, a powerful and long-lived red wine based on Merlot with late ripening and partial drying of the grapes (currently on the market the 2008 vintage). In our experience, the white Rinè, made from a blend of three grapes: Riesling and Incrocio Manzoni vinified only in steel, plus the addition of Chardonnay fermented and aged in barriques, deserves praise. And what about Dario's Sole, named after the man who had the intuition to bring Cantrina to life? It is a nectar that has nothing to envy from the best representatives of the category. (...)
