Barbera/Freisa blend. From estate parcels scattered about the steep hills of the Monferrato zone of Asti near the village of Scurzolengo. The Verrua family–Nadia and her mother Maria Teresa and her father Ottavio–farms the vines organically, tending and harvesting them entirely by hand. The grapes are destemmed with berries kept whole and gently pressed without breaking the skins, just enough to kick off fermentation in vat. Fermentations can be very lengthy in this cold cellar, where there is no addition of yeasts or sulfur and no temperature control; maceration is often as long as two months. Aging for the Barbera-Freisa blend is in a mix of tank and Slavonian oak for around a year, before bottling without fining or filtering and with a maximum of 2 grams of sulfur.

Label note: while all other Tavijn wines sport clever, cartooned labels from artist Gianluca Cannizzo, this wine bears a more conservative white label with black lettering and no illustration. – Bowler Wine