Lugana 'Il Gruccione' 2024 Nunzio Ghiraldi

A former Ancient Greek settlement with a historically ‘Greek style’ of wine, home to one of the fashion capitals of the world and Lake Como, Lombardy sits astride the Po, in northern Italy, with its back nestled into the Swiss Alps.  Whilst it’s mainly flat and ideal for rice cultivation, its geographical extremities are home to some unique wines with the white wines of Lugana produced to the south and south-west of Lake Garda.

Situated in the cru of Lugana di Sirmione, and virtually straddling the Veneto border, Nunzio Ghiraldi cultivates the region’s oldest cultivars of the locally named Turbiana (which rather confusingly is also called Trebbiano di Lugana, but which is in fact Verdicchio but not the light workhorse of Italian white wine that is Trebbiano) on the fiendishly heavy clay soils in the heart of the DOC. Nunzio has taken full advantage of this grape, along with the area’s flat glacial plain and warm climate, moderated by the cooling breezes of Lake Garda, to produce wines of richness and real interest.

Lugana ‘Il Gruccione’ is a rich and elegant wine with citrus and ripe green fruit notes, touches of honey, lemongrass and exotic stone fruit on the palate. The palate further develops with beautiful spice notes of thyme, sage and almonds. It is a complex and fascinating white which always impresses.

Il Gruccione is the species of bird which flies from North Africa each year to feed on bees in Nunzio’s vineyards.