Marco de Bartoli, Grillo Vignaverde

This is like a super-charged Muscadet or Picpoul with all the Christmas lights and decorations on the tree twinkling away (but definitely not in a tacky way!).  Zippy acidity, a nice level of skin contact, bags of ripe citrus fruit, subtle notes of nuts and peach - just loads going on in the glass! Perfect with really well seasoned brown crab or smoked salmon with a squeeze of lemon juice and a grind of black pepper, plancha cooked clams or when you just need to give your jaded palate a delicious call to attention!

100% Grillo. The Grillo comes from 9 hectares of 20-to-30-year-old estate vines planted on the limestone-rich, sandy loam soils of the Samperi contrada or zone in Marsala; the grapes for the Vignaverde  or "green vine" are picked earlier than for any other De Bartoli white, generally in mid-August, for maximum acidity and freshness. The organically farmed fruit is hand-harvested, destemmed, gently pressed and then macerated with skins for approximately 24 hours. After a 48-hour settling at a cool temperature, fermentation takes places in stainless steel vats with natural yeasts only. The wine is aged on its fine lees in steel tank for 6 months; total sulfur is moderate at about 44 mg/liter. Vignaverde is classified as an IGT Terre Siciliane; its first vintage was 2013, making it the newest in the De Bartoli dry-white line-up.