Ezio Cerruti

Who: Ezio Cerruti
Where: Castiglione Tinella, Cuneo, Piedmont, Italy
What: Moscato Bianco (vino bianco, passito, metodo ancestrale)
How: Organic (non-certified), estate-grown
Total size: 1,800 cases

The Wines

Fol 2017
RiFol Metodo Ancestrale 2019
Sol Passito 2013

He makes just a handful of wines, but a standard appointment will easily be a few hours. Typically, we pull up and the banter starts. Ezio is playful and he'll start by joking about US politics. Then the discussion might turn to pop culture. Should we taste a little he asks? Sure...He ushers us to the table, then heads back into the cellar only to come back out with a few bottles- RiFol, Fol, Sol, and a few back vintages of Sol. Sometimes there is a special bottling of Sol. We taste and ask our questions. Ezio will typically be rolling a cigarette, smiling with a wry smile, listening. He answers any technical questions we have quickly and concisely. He is happy to see us enjoying the wines, but his answers are nonchalant in tone. The conversation typically shifts back to local news at this point- Piedmontese grower politics, or the state of Italy. Music enters the conversation.

Should we head in, he asks? Sure...Ezio has a modest but impeccably tasteful home. His living room is an ode to music. One wall houses his entire record collection. The audio equipment is superior. More bottles arrive, sometimes a magnum or two. Ezio likes to start with jazz, and the audio quality is so rich you almost ask yourself if the real reason you are there is to taste and buy wine, or to simply hang out with Ezio and listen to mind blowing music. 'Pick!', he says. And most of us find ourselves at the wall, leafing through the collection. In this element, his wines meld with the music, and they make complete sense.

Ezio's pet nat, Rifol, will be arriving soon. From an American wine market perspective, this is a $13.67bt (5cs) pet nat, made by a Piedmont natural producer. We've been hollered at for wine in this category with these metrics all year long. It's everything the American market wants. The value quotient is incredible.

From a wine perspective though, this is an ode to Italian counter culture. This is a wine made from grapes grown organically in a valley that is entirely conventionally farmed. In the Spring, Ezio's little parcels look like green rectangles in a sea of brown and grey. This is Moscato, from Asti, fermented bone dry (like, drier than Vermentino..the wine is salty), which is finished methode ancestrale. And this is a wine from a man who is deeply respected in Piedmont, and enjoys the witty, playful status as the region's contrarian. He is the only vegan we know in Piedmont, yet the local trattorias go out of their way to make sure they offer a mushroom or vegetable dish when he arrives.

Most importantly though, we're getting in some very delicious wine. This is wine that is salty and minerally, with bubbles that explode and gush. The wine cuts and cleanses, and it quenches our thirst. It is best drunk with your favorite LP and some time to listen to both sides.