2017 Petracavallo Fiano

The 2017 Petracavallo Fiano, a southern Italian grape, is made in Mottolo south-east Italy, with organic or biodynamic grapes picked by hand, from spontaneous fermentations (without added yeast or bacteria), with no filtering/clarification, and minimal mechanical and chemical manipulation. I was shocked by the bright gold colour, because Fiano is often a pale lemon. While it smelt of milky fruit, it was overwhelmingly medicinal on the palate, and I had no sense of recognising the grape. This particular natural wine wouldn't convince a newbie drinker that Fiano is terrific. Its label is unusually plain for an Italian wine, textually heavy, but still with a sense of its Italian origins, given the lovely hand-signature of Vito the winemaker.