Carrie’s Corner: All things Italian with George Dalla Cia

George Dalla Cia of Dalla Cia Wines joins expert Carrie Adams to talk all things Italian. The family-owned winery has released a sparking pinot grigio, which the pair discuss in great detail – from the vine to the bottle. – Jarryd Neves

George Dalla Cia on their latest sparkling pinot grigio:

We had so much spare time during these lockdowns and it really did give us a chance to go back and look at projects that have been on the pipeline for a year or two. Considering that my parents are both from the Veneto area in the northeast part of Italy, I’ve kind of grown up with the Prosecco.

We were looking at possibly producing Prosecco in South Africa. But of course, this would mean that we would have to plant the glera grape, and then not be permitted to call it Prosecco because it’s protected. What we did for Bullicante, is we produced it as a still wine. Then on the bottling line we added the CO2, the bubbles. 

On sourcing the pinot grigio grapes:

This is all within 15km radius of False Bay. As you can imagine, there isn’t very much pinot grigio available. We were able to secure a fair amount. This will also allow us to increase production going forward. We follow a very similar message as per our chardonnay, for example. We do a slightly longer skin contact, during fermentation and we pick riper. We want a fuller style wine. All our soils are decomposed granite, rock and clay. So you have a lot of that beautiful mineralogy coming through in the wine itself, together with, of course, that delicate sweet melon note, a bit of the creaminess, pair and marzipan even.

On the name, Bullicante:

Venice is one of the most special places on Earth. Having visited Venice with my parents, we would go to Murano. Bullicante is this very famous glassblowing technique, where the glassblower will actually trap air bubbles into the glass and then stretch this glass. So you have these very elongated air bubbles that are trapped there. It made perfect sense to call this sparkling wine Bullicante. My darling wife, she did the name and she came up with the idea for the label. 

On the flavour profile:

I think what’s also very important to note on our Bullicante is that generally, when you taste a sparkling wine, the bubbles are very big and very foamy on the palate. Whereas here, we have a much finer bead of bubble and [it’s] very full bodied, but gentle. There’s a great acidity. This is a Brut, so we have nine grams of sugar per litre, but it leaves you with a beautiful, lingering aftertaste.

On what to pair Bullicante with:

What’s wonderful about Bullicante is that you can have it as an aperitif or you can have it the classic way, as we would in Italy. Or you can have Parma ham with the sweet melon – which is another classic. With figs also, or even with sushi. It lends itself beautifully to sushi and oysters. What’s wonderful too, is that you can enjoy in a spritz. The Bullicante with a dash of sparkling water and Campari, for instance, and lots of ice. Very refreshing.

Read more:

Visited 773 times, 1 visit(s) today