Which wine has the perfect bubbles to celebrate a Christmas, a birthday, New Year's Eve or even a dinner with a best friend?
In Italy this choice is certainly difficult with the many varieties of grapes and flavours from our different territories, but we have to make a choice, for this festive season.
We have chosen a brut that not only has an unmistakable but 'good' flavour, in the sense that it contains the history of a territory and the love of a man and a family.
We talk about Kius Brut from the grapes of Bellone di Cori and Kius Extra Brut from Nero Buono di Cori grapes. I'm not sure two wine varieties are known to the wider public but they are the centre of the world for Marco Carpineti who built his incredible Cori company precisely on the rediscovery of native wine varieties.
The story begins when Marco was a young electrician, son of a farmer very committed to his land. At the death of his father, in 1985, Marco decided to abandon the safe job he had and start to cultivate the small business of his father but using a new awareness of the role and importance of the farmer.
He started immediately with the construction of the first small winery, completely handmade, with local workers, a building of 7 x 12 meters.
In Cori, between Artena and Latina, everything is about history and nature. We are on the slopes of the Lepini Mountains on the western side characterized by olive groves and vineyards down towards the Pontine plain, and just a stone's throw from the amazing gardens of Ninfa of the Caetani Foundation, which are among the most beautiful in the world.
The link with the Lepini is strong and a museum is dedicated to them in which the contemporary landscape is explained and interpreted in its historical dimension. Today is the consequence of a layering of events, natural and cultural, the result of the interaction between man and the environment, that is precisely of history and agriculture: and the role of the farmer becomes the key player in the creation of the spirit of the places.
Cori has very ancient roots, it was founded during the Bronze Age, of which the Cyclopean walls testify. It was a faithful ally of Rome participating in the Punic Wars and acquiring Roman citizenship.
The testimony of its importance are the temple of Hercules erected around 80 BC which dominates the city from above with four columns on the main façade, and the temple of the Dioscuri, built between the fourth and the second century BC in the Forum area.
The medieval village oozes with other traditions that are remembered by the Carosello dei Rioni during the festival of the Madonna del Soccorso, where the famous 'flagwavers of Cori', known around the world, were born.
How can you not love Cori? How can one not be pervaded byitsspirit of 'pearl of the Lepini' and not to try to enhance the products of its soil?
This is what Marco Carpineti has done in the years since he decided to devote himself to agriculture. Those who love the land respect it and use only natural methods for crops, so the first 'bio' certification dates back to 1994, when few people were still thinking about respecting the natural cycles of the environment.
Today Marco Carpineti is not just a biological company but a biodynamic company. In addition to wine, different varieties of oil are produced from Itrana olives.
But let's get to the perfect bubbles that we can now fully and holistically appreciate.
There are two types of wine both made with the classic method, that requires secondary fermentation in bottle for 24 months. Kius Brut is a sparkling wine produced only from Bellone grapes, an original wine variety of Cori, with a light yellow colour with golden reflections. It has a fruity scent with hints of yeast, a fresh, a strong taste with good persistence.
Kius Extra Brut is also a sparkling wine but instead produced only with Nero di Cori grapes with a fermentation of 36 months. Its colour is light pink salmon, it has a citrus scent and leaves a fresh and incisive taste in the mouth thanks to a fine and elegant effervescence.
The ultimate challenge of Marco Carpineti?
It is that of rediscovering the original cultivation methods such as using horses for ploughing. The horses are a particular breed of Italian workhorse and are suited for this type of activity. Only a small part of the business uses animals, but this type of work is a philosophy of life, it is a moment of communion with all beings of creation, it is the true essence of the relationship between man and nature.
Participating in ploughing with horses is an immersion in our history and, ultimately, in ourselves. At the end the ‘perfect bubbles’ of Cori serve to remind us how good the fruits of this 'fatigue' are!
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