Tasting Notes: In the glass, this stunning wine has a deep, saturated, beet purple color, with electric flashes of violet at the edge. The exotic, compelling nose is like a huge garden in bloom,... with intoxicating aromas of black raspberries, dried lavender, Berkshire blueberries, and freshly sanded cedar moving in and out of the foreground, along with fleeting suggestions of dried pine needles, ruby oolong tea, and hibiscus. On the palate, the wine is keenly focused and nimble, with juicy, dark fruit flavors that echo the nose, including the ripe wild blueberries and tart red cherries, along with dried orange zest and cardamom, all delicately framed in soft ripe tannins. This is a perfect example of the many rare local wines of Italy that are experiencing a renaissance (there were only two acres of Lacrima in the 1980s), and an ideal red wine for seafood, like stoccafiso, the fish stew of Ancona based on cod. Read More
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Giorgio Brunori’s decision to bottle his wines and open an enoteca in Jesi changed the face of wine in Ancona Province. The Brunoris, like every other family, sold their fruit in bulk, to be turned into the watery, bland wine sold in kitschy, fish-shaped bottles to tourists visiting the seashore. But Giorgio knew his farming deserved a better audience, so along with his son Mario, he began to estate bottle their harvest in 1956. And the bottled wines brought notice from renowned wine writers Luigi Veronelli and Victor Hazan, whose glowing reviews turned the world’s attention to Georgio’s wines. Now his grandchildren, Carlo and Cristina, hold the reins at Azienda Brunori. The story is a familiar one at Moore Brothers: iconoclastic winegrowers who are the first in their area to estate bottle their wines, the Brunori family is our favorite kind of producer.
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The Marches were part of a territory that extended inland along the eastern bank of the Tiber River and up north all the way to the Po Valley. The Umbri and the Picentes occupied the area during early Paleolithic times. Colonized and organized by the Romans in the 3rd century B.C., the area was invaded by the Goths after the fall of the Roman Empire. In the 6th century, the northern part of today's Marches came under Byzantine rule. In the 8th century, the region was donated to the papacy in two steps, first by Pepin the Short, the first Carolingian king of the Franks, in 754 and then by his son Charlemagne in 774. Today's region reaches from the eastern slopes of the Apennines to the Adriatic Sea. Among the reds, the Lacrima di Morro d’Alba is the rarest. Produced entirely from the ancient Lacrima grape which must be grown entirely in the small commune of Morro d’Alba, this lavender-scented, medium-bodied red is a local favorite with stoccafiso, a fish stew based on cod. This is a classic example of the hundreds of rare, local wines that are experiencing a renaissance in Italy.
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Currently a very rare variety grown within the boundaries of the very small area in the Marche known as Morro d'Alba which is just west of Ancona (no relationship to the Piemontese region). The grape was nearly extinct when the DOC was established in 1985. It produces wine of supple textures and complex aromatics reminiscent of a theoretical blend of fine Loire Cabernet Franc and very high-quality Beaujolais.
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This wine works wonderfully with spicy seafood stew, salamis, roasted chicken, and roasted peppers.