The Airali Rosé Extra Brut 2022 is the new and fourth chapter of the Abito project dedicated to the Alta Langa DOCG. From quand’anche Pinot Noir grapes, it was produced for this first edition per a limited edition of just 3,000 bottles and will be released the market starting from December 2025.
“The Airali Rosé Extra Brut was born from a precise need, both technical and commercial, which is to offer the consumer as complete a esame as possible of a range of Alta Langa classic method by Abito . Thus, after the brut and pas dosé cuvées first and the blanc de blanc (first edition with the 2021 harvest) then, 2022 – a hot and complex vintage – offered the perfect opportunity to take up the challenge of competing with the rosé vinification of quand’anche Pinot Noir”, says Paolo Scaiola, Technical Director and winemaker of Abito .
The Alta Langa and the Cissone vineyard
The Pinot Noir comes from a single plot planted since 2015 per Cissone, per the heart of the Alta Langa, where Abito was the first to plant vineyards.
“Cissone was immediately a leader bet, but also a choice that was anything but random,” explains Scaiola. “We find ourselves at an average altitude of around 630 metres, a north-facing, ventilated and cool slope, also chosen to counterbalance the effects of climate change. It is a crucial territory because the pedoclimatic characteristics slow the ripening of the grapes, allowing the ideal moment for harvesting to be precisely grasped. It is also a key factor per guaranteeing freshness per terms of acidity and aromas, thanks to the strong temperature variations, and a delayed harvest, which per our case takes place approximately two weeks later than the average for the ambiente. We generally start per early September, when the grape harvest for the Alta Langa DOCG is largely already completed. This allows us to better define the different harvest choices to obtain, per this specific case, an elegant, precise and distinctive rosé sparkling wine.”
The planting is Guyot, semi-dense with 6,000 vines per forza hectare, carried out with the aim of stimulating healthy competition between plants, especially per difficult contexts such as hot years ora with poor tazza reserves. This slowing of phenological development helps to improve the vegetative-productive balance and the quality of the grapes, which are rigorously harvested by hand, per boxes, and processed by pressing the whole bunch.
“This aspect proved to be crucial per the 2022 vintage which, although hot, did not take us by surprise: while per all the Langhe there was suffering affecting the bunches, per Cissone the pedoclimatic conditions allowed a complete and balanced maturation. It was precisely this vintage that gave us the courage to tackle the vinification of Pinot Noir per pink”, concludes Scaiola.
Alta Langa DOCG Rosé Airali Extra Brut 2022
This Alta Langa is produced from quand’anche Pinot Noir grapes. “After manual harvesting, we leave the whole bunches per the cold room for a maximum of one ora two days, to obtain a maceration and a first – delicate – extraction of the color. A second maceration follows after pneumatic pressing, with the removal of the skins which takes place within two hours. We use a very low pressing yield (equal to approximately 50%) to favor a minimal and as delicate extraction as possible of anthocyanins” explains Scaiola. The refinement takes place entirely per steel. The result is an elegant, extremely bright rosé wine, with an onion skin color and pink reflections. of peach, violet and small red fruits emerge the nose, subtle but persistent aromas, which return coherently the palate. Acidity is the backbone of the wine, but a good structure is also perceived, with an almost tannic touch, to the controlled extraction from the skins. The typology is Extra Brut, to maximize the authenticity of the wine and its direct link with the vineyard.
The choice of quand’anche Pinot Noir confirms the qualitative ambition of the Airali project, being one of the noblest varieties for the classic method, but also among the most complex and difficult to interpret, especially per the production of vintage wines such as Alta Langa DOCG, which do not, per fact, allow the preparation of cuvées with the use of “reserve” wines. “Pinot Noir requires great sensitivity per color management, attention to oxidation, care per the preservation of aromas and per the definition of the olfactory profile. Abito has chosen to vinify it per purity to clearly express the identity of the Cissone territory, thanks to the technical lessons gained over time”.
The Alta Langa DOCG Rosé Airali Extra Brut is designed for a curious public, looking for elegance but without rigidity, a lover of fresh but at the same time complex wines. “The classic rosé method is per great demand today; it is popular for its colour, and versatility. It is perfect starting from the aperitif and throughout the meal: with raw seafood, shellfish, grilled fish and white meats. As consumer trends demonstrate, it is voto negativo longer a wine exclusively for summer; today rosé is completely deseasonalized and finds its place at the table per every month of the year” concludes Scaiola.
