← All the wines · Card N.08
Experimental · 100% from the most stubborn grape on the hill · Only at the Enosafari
The sparkling wine
of Colle Arfuso
It all started at a lunch, at the end of August 2019. A friend said: “Why don’t you make a sparkling wine with the most stubborn grape you have?” And I said: “Why not.” Since then this wine has been my laboratory — and a tribute to the versatility of a grape everyone calls difficult, which can in fact be dry, dried, rosé and sparkling too.
It is the secret wine of the Enosafari: not on the price list, not in the shop. It has been on its natural lees since 2021, with almost no sulphites, and over these years the color has moved from shocking pink to onion skin, almost golden. Plenty of people have fallen for it — for now, the only way to drink it is to come here.
Not for sale — tasted at the Enosafari
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The tasting · slowly, as it should be
Eye, nose,
mouth
The eye
Changeable by nature: it started bright pink, almost shocking, and after years on the lees it has turned onion-skin, almost golden. Every year the surprise renews itself.
The nose
Fruit, first of all — the wine is still on its fermentation lees, and disgorging can wait. There is bread crust, but at a distance. Years later, what you find is still the fruit.
The mouth
Around 13 degrees, a delicate bubble that does not last long. The tannin cleans the mouth just enough to remind you this is a native Umbrian grape. Freshness and body call for another sip, another sip, another glass.
How it is made · ancestral method, steady nerves
A fermentation
that finishes in the bottle
Picked by hand, early, choosing the grapes for acidity. A soft crush on my grandfather’s old hand crusher, the stems acting as a filter. Then a single fermentation, which finishes straight in the bottle: that is where the bubble is born.
You have to bottle at the final stage of the fermentation — analysis every day, and in the end it decides anyway. Since 2024 we have also been trying the classic method, with a dry base wine and must from the same grape for the second fermentation. The experiment continues.
The details
From the cellar
Why I don’t sell it (yet)
Because it is a living experiment: every vintage is a chapter of learning, and I want to see where it gets to before putting it on a shelf. Meanwhile I open it for whoever comes to the Enosafari — for two years now, everyone who tastes it keeps asking for it.
One chapter a year · the true story
Seven years
of attempts
The lunch with friends
“Why don’t you make a sparkling wine with the most stubborn grape you have?” “Why not.” Picked too late: too much sugar, not enough acidity. Out of balance, but the road was open.
The bottles that exploded
During covid, bottles were impossible to find and less sturdy. The fermentation restarted in the bottle with too much sugar: they all exploded — and took the 2019 ones with them.
The dawn wine
Bottled at 5 in the morning, on the way back from the hospital where my wife was having some tests. Lower pressure, balance found: it is the vintage you taste today, still on its lees.
The change of yeast
It stayed sweet, high pressure, difficult disgorging. Another lesson in the notebook.
Downy mildew
The vintage was lost, production went to zero. The land is in charge; we listen.
The classic method
A dry base wine, must from the same grape for the second fermentation. More method, the same curiosity. Let us see where it takes us.
Why the crash helmet?
When I open it at the Enosafari, I open it inside a bucket of water — the pressure is still that of the natural fermentation. The first few times, in the cellar, a few bottles exploded. Ever since, I joke that you need a helmet.
The way champagne goes with oysters, this goes with capocollo. My own pairing? A piping-hot pizza with pecorino and coppa di testa. Perfect.— Giorgio Brunozzi
At the table
- Capocollo and Umbrian cured meats
- Hot pizza with pecorino and coppa di testa
- The aperitivo among the vines
- The toast that opens the Enosafari
★ You open it in a bucket of water, you pour, and you watch what happens.
Before you buy it, come and drink it here
The only place to drink it is here, among the rows