After a wonderful visit to the Veneto the other month, we are very happy to offer a number of new releases from one of Italy’s most prolific and talented young vignaioli, Alex Della Vecchia.
Having learned his craft alongside the late, great Ernesto Cattel of Costadilà, a highly respected, humble visionary who was single handedly responsible for preserving the traditions of the Prosecco of old, Alex began his own project, Ombretta Agricola in 2017.
A few years prior, he planted one and a half hectares of Pinot Nero on his family’s farm in Belluno, right at the foot of the Dolomites. This dramatic vineyard surrounded by mountains is planted over alluvial marl some six hundred metres above sea level, near the banks of the River Piave. His family live in an old Monastery which dates back to the 16th Century, keeping donkeys, goats and cows alongside the vines. The wines from this site are named Pedecastello, after the road that winds amongst the mountains.
A little further down the river in San Donà di Piave, Alex farms four hectares of Verduzzo Trevigiano, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. Here the vines are thirty years old and planted over alluvial soils, just two hundred metres above and twenty kilometres from the Adriatic. These wines are bottled eponymously, as Ombretta Agricola.
Each year he also sources organic grapes from friends elsewhere in Italy to make wines under his Grinton label. These joyful, easygoing wines are a tribute to the rustic vino da tavola of old and offer tremendous value.
Alex’s wines are now available on Tutto a Casa