A beautiful area, which invites to relaxing weekends by the lake, and a great white to make people talk about themselves.
There are landscapes, experiences and scents that bewitch you as a child and do not leave you anymore. It happened so to Girelli brothers, Claudio, Roberto and Valentino, which represent the fourth generation of a family of winemakers, active in the territory of Lugana since 1911.
To start the adventure in the wine field was Francesco Girelli, who tilled two hectares of land and planted the typical vine of the area, the turbiana, and some international, such as merlot and cabernet. The company grew during the twentieth century, with Luciano Girelli who enlarged the property with almost 70 hectares of land, but hereditary beginnings end its end in 1998. The dream seemed to have disappeared, without the possibility of starting again. Two years later, however, a great-uncle ceded two hectares of vineyards to Luciano and Roberto, the second of the three Girelli brothers, told his father that he wanted to carry on the family tradition. He enrolled in the Faculty of Viticulture and Oenology of Verona, after having studied agrarian, against the paternal will. After years of microscopic wine production, sold mostly to friends, in 2008 the Montonale brand was born, which takes its name from the locality where the winery is located: Roberto is the winemaker of the company, the eldest son Claudio follows the administrative part and Valentino takes care of the vineyards. We are in the production area of Lugana, an area of Lombardy, in the immediate vicinity of the Lake Garda, blessed with an exceptional microclimate, so much so that it is among the most northerly places in the world where it is still possible to grow crops citrus fruits and the olive tree.
With the turban grapes, our wines produce three labels, a classic method, the Lugana Montunal which, with 75 thousand bottles produced on a total of 100 thousand, represents the company's flag, and the Lugana Orestilla, which Roberto has thought of as a white of great evolutionary ability, taking the Burgundy wines as a model. Elegant and dry, it comes from a single vineyard to which it owes its name: Orestilla was perhaps the owner of these lands, as demonstrated by a marble stele from the Roman period found here. Uncorked young, it is a wine that enchants with the aromas of exotic fruit, sweet citrus and saffron; over time, acquires hints of flint that blend well with intense minerality. That of Roberto is a bet won, because this wine is so good that in 2017 the jury of the most prestigious wine contest in the world, the Decanter World Wine Awards, awarded the Lugana Orestilla 2015 as best monovarietal white wine in the world: the dream of those three children is again a reality.
Why now: the new year is about to come out and, after the prize of Decanter, it runs out quickly: it's the right time to make a good escort.
As did: after soft pressing in the absence of oxygen, the must ferments for 10 days in steel tanks, then matures on the lees for 8 months with constant bâtonnage and, finally, refines in the bottle for 10 months.
To combine with: vegetable soups, onion soup, crustaceans and stewed fish, white meats.
Serve it to: 10-12 ° C.
Price: 18 euros.
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