Alé Bianco is 100% Malvasia that sees seven days of skin-contact, followed by additional time macerating in fiberglass. No fining. No filtering. Textured and aromatic, with citrus peel, orchard fruit, herbs, and a gently phenolic grip. There’s history in this bottle, but it drinks with clarity and energy.

Conestabile della Staffa

When Danilo Marcucci speaks about Conestabile della Staffa, he’s quick to remind you that he’s only a guest. The land belongs to his wife Alessandra’s family — a noble lineage that stretches back to medieval Umbria — and his role is simply to care for it.

The estate at Monte Melino was once the beating heart of the region. In the 1800s it spanned hundreds of hectares, a self-sufficient village of farmers, tradespeople, and winemakers all tied to the Conestabile della Staffa family. Wine flowed from its cantina until 1956. Then, silence. For nearly sixty years the grapes were sold off, the cellar dormant.

Beginning in 2015, he set about reviving the property — twelve hectares of vines, many planted in the 1970s, miraculously untouched by chemicals. His approach is simple and stubborn: spontaneous fermentations, no corrections, no additives. “No technology,” he likes to say. What he learned from masters like Valentini and Cappellano shows not in imitation, but in conviction.