Our new wine ‘Tumulus’ is a tribute to the Etruscans who once lived in the valley of Potentino and cultivated the soil, making wine and oil as we still do. Means mound, little hill or tomb from the Latin ‘tumere’ to swell. ‘Tumulus’ is made in ancient volcanic stone basins called ‘pestarole’ or ‘palmenti’ by a vigorous crushing of Sangiovese grapes with bare feet. The squashed grapes and juice are then put into a small container of stainless steel and left to ferment. After 2 weeks the skins are removed and after 6 months the wine is bottled in reusable ceramic flasks.
It is a super natural wine. We follow a fundamental process - grapes, feet, stone. The indigenous yeasts, related to the ones once used for fermentation by the Etruscans are naturally present in the stone and the environment. They spontaneously trigger the fermentation. We do not add anything to the wine – no sulphites or cultivated yeast.
Tumulus is perhaps the closest we can get to what was drunk in the valley 2,500 years ago and simply delicious.
Similar winemaking basins are found around Castello di Potentino and in various parts of Italy – Lazio, Basilicata, Sardinia, Sicily and Spain, Israel, Iraq, the Republic of Georgia and attest to an archaic culture of wine-making in these areas.
We believe this is the only wine in the world currently made like this. If anyone knows of anyone else doing this in carved volcanic stone-basins please let us know.
It comes in a 0.75 Litre reusable ceramic bottle with reusable silicon cork.