2002 Napa Valley Dolcetto di Nonno
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Nonno immigrated to California from Northern Italy and brought his passion for food, wine, art, and family tradition. The Buoncristiani brothers, Nonno’s grandsons, planted Dolcetto to be crafted into a wine as a tribute to their roots, and in honor of Nonno.

Rarely grown outside of Italy, we fortunately found a great source of Dolcetto for planting material. The budwood came from famed viticulturalist John Caldwell, known for his rare clonal collection of multiple varieties. Together with our friends, we brothers planted our Clone 69 Dolcetto in Yountville in a site warm enough to ensure an ultra ripe wine yet cool enough to mirror the Northwestern Piedmont region of Italy, Dolcetto’s origin.

After three years of crafting Bordeaux and Rhone varietal wines in ’99, ’00, and ’01, we harvested the 2002 Dolcetto from two unique sources; the Yountville vineyard planted and managed by the Buoncristiani Brothers, and a small block in the Caldwell Coombsville vineyard. We instill our strict viticultural practices at these exclusive sites and thus ensure our highest standard of quality. The best wines are made in the vineyard and with Dolcetto this is especially true. The typical large crop set by Dolcetto is thinned to one cluster per shoot and the huge clusters that remain are trimmed to half their size to achieve cluster uniformity and concentration of varietal flavor.

Following harvest, we cold soaked the lots for two days, then initiated fermentation slowly with an Italian yeast strain that was isolated from a Piedmont vineyard. During fermentation we hand punched the cap five times a day, extracting the rich flavor, color, and tannin from the thick skins. The lots were pressed at dryness following eleven days of yeast activity and cap-punching, yielding intense young vino di Dolcetto with full extraction. The small batches were kept separate during fermentation, after pressing, and throughout the first year of aging in French oak barrels. During the second year of barrel aging, the vineyard components were blended together to create optimum complexity while retaining balance, varietal character, and superior quality. The 2002 Dolcetto di Nonno was born at the March bottling of 2004.

“When I was given the opportunity to taste the Buoncristiani Brothers’ Dolcetto I forgot for a moment where I was. It was so similar in style to that of a good friend in Piemonte, Italy, which is a true achievement and shows respect for the varietal. Their Dolcetto is an elegant and rich wine with that aroma of blueberries and intense color one obtains from proper extraction of the Dolcetto grape. This wine has the uncanny ability to pair with a variety of foods which for a restaurateur is outstanding to have on the wine list.”
- Gianni Fassio (Piemonte vineyard owner & Palio d’ Asti restaurant proprietor in San Francisco)

To You and Your Nonno, SALUTE!

P.O. Box 6946 -- Napa, CA 94581 -- Phone: (707)259-1681 -- Fax: (707)259-1740 -- bros@buonwine.com