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La Tosa
LA TOSA
La Tosa winery was born in 1980, when the Pizzamiglio brothers, Stefano and Ferruccio, who were born and living in Milano and whose mother was from Piacenza, bought some hectares of hilly land above the country of Vigolzone, in the Val Nure area, and began planting vineyards. In the beginning, this should have been a hobby, but in 1984 they decided to do it as a job and they transferred there.
The wine vault was soon built and the wine-making activity started immediately. In 1988 La Tosa opened a farm-holidays and in 2015 a wine museum, with a particular unique layout. Most part of the actual 19 hectares of vineyard, 13 owned by the winery and 6 for rent, have been established from 1980 to 1983, and the others in 1992 and 2000. From them, La Tosa produces every year 100-110.000 bottles and engages the whole family and some employees.
Since the beginning, the main goal was to achieve the highest quality, not caring too much about the traditional local typology of wines. In spite of the ‘piacentino-emiliana’ tradition, in fact, La Tosa mainly produces still wines, respecting the nature of the soil which is red, clayey, not very fertile and rich in minerals.
The kind of viticulture is organic: in the vineyards are used only copper, sulphur and natural manure. The production of grapes is kept very low, by doing the cluster thining in the best vineyards. Besides, several other operations are accomplished: green pruning, cutting leaves, airing bunches. The vintage is carried out by hand in small boxes, with an accurate selection of the clusters. The wine is often controlled with analysis, but every little or big choice about it is always made by tasting it.
THE BROTHERS
Pizzamiglio brothers’ goal is to obtain wines reflecting the grape from which they come; deep and complex wines but, at the same time, drinkable and nice, just like the typical characters of the landscape, the food and the people of Emilia-Romagna.
Many are the awards received by the wines of La Tosa: “Tre Bicchieri” of Gambero Rosso by Luna Selvatica; “Cinque Grappoli” of Bibenda by Vignamorello, Luna Selvatica and Sorriso di Cielo; “Quattro Tralci” of Vitae Associazione Italiana Sommelier by Vignamorello e Luna Selvatica; “Grande Vino” by Luna Selvatica and “Vino Slow” by Slow Wine; the “Snail” symbol by Slow Wine (the only winery in Colli Piacentini, one of the 200 wineries in Italy); “Best Red Wine of Italy” of Annuario di Luca Maroni by Vignamorello; “One of the 100 Italian Wines to buy” of I vini de L’Espresso by Vignamorello, “Best price-quality” of Gambero Rosso and Slow Wine by TerredellaTosa and Terrafiaba Valnure; and so on.
WINE PRODUCERS
“Terrafiaba Ortrugo” Ortrugo dei Colli Piacentini D.O.C.: it is a white sparkling wine, fresh and elegant, obtained from Ortrugo and a small amount of Trebbiano.
“Rio del Tordo” Emilia I.G.T. Bianco: it is a white wine, fresh and aromatic, obtained from Malvasia, Sauvignon and Trebbiano grapes. It is a still wine that creates a connection between freshness and aromatic flavour, without losing structure.
Colli Piacentini D.O.C. Sauvignon: it is a white, structured wine. Its main feature is not only its typical powerful smell but also its complexity, and very good texture and vegetal elegance at the taste.
“Sorriso di Cielo” Colli Piacentini D.O.C. Malvasia: it is a dry wine with a very light sugary residue, but also great acidity and sapidity, full of fragrance and aromatic freshness. This wine offers great sensations of sweet smell, flavour and deep complexity, and it can age in a very good way more than twenty years.
“Terrafiaba Gutturnio” Gutturnio D.O.C.: it is a red sparkling wine from Barbera and Bonarda, fresh and immediate, with fruity flavours and, at the taste, both smoothness and acidity.
“TerredellaTosa” Gutturnio D.O.C. Superiore without added sulfites: it is a red wine, nice and with a genuine character and a good consistency. Obtained from Barbera and Bonarda grapes, it is vinified with no added sulfites.
“Vignamorello” Gutturnio D.O.C. Superiore: it comes from the Morello vineyard and it is the Gutturnio cru. A portion of this wine mellows in not new oak barrels. In comparison with the above-mentioned Gutturnio, this one is much deeper, substantial and complex.
“Luna Selvatica” Colli Piacentini D.O.C. Cabernet Sauvignon: obtained from Cabernets Sauvignon and a small amount of Merlot, it mellows in new oak barrels. This practice gives it a special spiced smell. Its taste is very direct in spite of its considerable profundity, concentration and complexity.
“L’Ora Felice” Emilia I.G.T. Malvasia Passito: it is a white wine obtained from Malvasia. It’s a new style of “passito” based on freshness and elegance more than aromas too much matures and heavy. An explosion of peach, honey, flowers and saffron, remains for a long time.
PHILOSOPHY
For us, producing wine is not a creative act as much as an interpretive act. Its soul and its characteristics are already imprinted in the book of nature, and the pages are pieces of the territory. It is up to us to flip through the pages and find the right one, and then translate it and finally interpret it. But without preconceived ideas about what we want that wine to become, without modifying its very essence. Just like a parent with a child: raising the child so that he can have all that he needs to express himself with his own personality, attitudes, character, not according to the personality of his parent.
This influences all of our productive choices. Because we cultivate each vine differently from the next, based on its specific characteristics: Sauvignon is a Nordic grape variety, so we cultivate in a way that ensures that bunches of grapes are sheltered from heat and light, and since Malvasia is a Mediterranean grape variety, we make sure that the grapes have contact with sun and heat.
And similarly, every wine we produce is produced differently: Vignamorello, the physically exuberant child, rich in color but not so much in tannins, because of the Barbera grapes, it spends only a brief time in wooden barrels, lending it spicy notes, while Luna Selvatica, the more studious child because of its rich phenol content, spends an entire year in wooden barrels. And we face each year differently since each is a world unto itself.
Paraphrasing what a famous chef once said about creating avant-garde: know everything and forget everything.
The guiding principles that we are inspired by and aspire to are balance, seriousness, rigor, simplicity, controlled anxiety.
onsidering every aspect of what we do, always remaining open to all stimuli and innovation, anxious but at the same time with a clear direction in mind, keeping in mind that truly nothing is what it seems, staying rigorous, not taking any details for granted, reading and interpreting nature with purity and simplicity. And finally, balance, never perfectly reached but constantly sought after: balance in all of our decisions and balance with nature, whose soul must always be respected, with constant good health, and an identity read and revealed in all of its actions.
All of this to obtain a wine that is in harmony with its own parents (the land, climate, grapes and yeasts), with us, with those who drink it, a wine that because of the characteristics of our territory and our way of working is rich, concentrated, deep, complex, long-lived, but which never forget that they are from Emilia, so also immediate, solar, harmonious, free of intellectualisms, a wine that conserves all the beauty of the nature-man environment of our region.
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