Lorenzo Piccin
GRIFALCO – VULTURE, BASILICATA (BORN 1988)
Lorenzo Piccin grew up in the vineyard. His parents founded the Salcheto estate in Montepulciano just after he was born, then sold it and moved to the Vulture, establishing Grifalco in 2004. After high school, Piccin left Basilicata to study winemaking and work in other wineries. ‘I wanted my own personal experience beyond what my father taught me,’ he says. Alas, his father became ill, and Piccin returned home at the age of 23. ‘I took over everything,’ says Piccin, who now has help from his younger brother Andrea.
Piccin was quick to adopt his father’s experimental nature. ‘In life, you only have the opportunity to make perhaps 50 harvests, which isn’t many.’ He is grateful to his father for having acquired vineyards in various communes throughout Vulture. ‘It is a zone with infinite potential,’ says Piccin. He aims to express the Vulture’s diverse terroir through separate cru bottlings.
At the same time, Piccin is well aware of the relative obscurity of the Basilicata region. ‘But Vulture has the same potential as Montalcino or Barbaresco, and Aglianico is among Italy’s most noble grapes.’ Piccin has banded together with other like-minded young producers in the zone to spread the word.
Grifalco, Damaschito, Aglianico del Vulture Superiore, Basilicata 2015 93 £ 33-£ 33.20 FortyFive10°, Italvinus
From a plot of 80-year-old vines in Maschito, where iron- and manganeserich red sand prevails, and made with long maceration and fewer pump-overs for a gentler extraction. Seductively pungent rose aromas with nuances of new leather and blackberry. Succulent and tangy with plenty of depth, elegant tannins. Organic. Drink 2020-2029 Alc 14.5%