2022 Scala Ciro Bianco
2022 Scala Ciro Bianco
For this wine, we’re in Calabria, the toe box of Italy’s boot, a sun-baked slew of rugged coastlines, jagged mountains, and old-world charm. It has pristine beaches but is relatively under-visited compared to similar Italian seaside destinations. It’s a hidden gem, and that goes for the wines, too.
The Scala family has managed their 18-hectare estate for over 200 years, though they only began making estate-bottled wine in 1949. The Cirò DOC—a quality and geographic designation for Italy wine—was established twenty years later. The winery is now run by Luigi Scala and his son Francesco, who were the first in Cirò, and perhaps in all of Calabria, to convert their entire farm to organic—and now biodynamic—farming. They focus on traditional Calabrian varieties, like this Greco Bianco, which was brought to Italy by the ancient Greeks.
This bottle is 100% Greco Bianco, entirely sourced from a vineyard planted in 1997. The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented in stainless steel. This is a bright, intensely mineral wine full of lemon, pear, saline, and sea air. It tastes like a day at the beach. It has a beautiful, textural mouthfeel, while remaining light on its feet. As we round out summer, wines like this are what I want to be drinking.
It would be a shame to open this bottle and not make a buttery, lemony pasta—preferably studded with crab or clams. I don’t make the rules!