Antonio Perrino is from Dolceacqua, a quiet, pretty little town in the Ligurian foothills, just a few miles from the seaside holiday towns of the Mediterranean.
Nino has just a few hectares of vines and ancient olive groves planted on steep terraces in the hills above the village. Planted over clay and limestone, the oldest vines are over a hundred years of age, the oldest trees over a thousand. It is a truly magical place, heady with herbs and with views all the way to Corsica on a clear day.
Rossese is a grape that produces deep, resolutely Mediterranean wines which possess an incredible ability to age. We have enjoyed bottles dating back to the seventies with Nino and they have never ceased to impress. He also makes a small amount of salty, herbaceous Vermentino, which works so well with Liguria’s rich and varied cuisine.
Nino tends the vines the way he always has, organically and by hand. The wines are made in his garage in the town centre, one the smallest winemaking setups we have seen. Things are done in the same fashion as when Nino began helping his father with the harvests here over sixty years ago, and the wines, fittingly, taste as if they were from another age.
In recent years, Nino’s niece Erica has joined him in the vines, ensuring that the legacy of Testalonga remains in safe hands.