Bera e Figli "Sarvanet" Dolcetto 2020

Bera is in the part of Piemonte that is famous for Moscato d'Asti, a famously bulk-produced, sweet wine. They wouldn't be the most obvious place to look for some of the most progressive, natural winemaking and farming in Europe, but that is in fact the case. They are a true outlier in the Canelli area, where Moscato has been planted since the 1300s and their estate dates to 1785 when the Bera's ancestors bought the property from the Knights of Malta. As Alessandra Bera says, "My father took over the estate from my grandfather in 1964 and continued working the exact same way. He once told me ‘Why should I poison myself? My father was able to work without chemicals so why can't I?’” The Bera wines were some of the first natural wines to be exported from Italy, back in the 1990s. Though Bera makes far and away the best Moscato d’Asti, in my humble opinion, the Sarvanet Dolcetto shows off their wild side. From 40 year old vines on clay/limestone soil, it's a thick, rustic, textural red with sumac, sage, medicinal cherry, and some barnyardy Brett. Fermented and aged in concrete with a mere 10ppm of sulfur added. Jonathan Kemp