Prima Terra, “Carlaz” Bianco For Sale

Prima Terra, “Carlaz” Bianco

This wine is many things. It is rare. It is the product of “heroic” viticulture in Italy’s incomparable Cinque Terre. It is “orange” (thanks to brief skin contact), but it retains the varietal character of the Vermentino grape—and the character of a “white” wine. It’s a gastronomic wine, in that it is structured and savory and makes you crave food (in this case a beautiful piece of fish drizzled with lemon/butter/capers). In summation, it delivers on every level. 

This isn’t always the case with wines from places like the Cinque Terre: If you’re drinking them in their place of origin, great, but once removed from those spectacular surroundings, it’s often a different story. Not so with Prima Terra, a veritable winemaking boutique run by local legend Walter De Batté. He built his reputation on the local sweet wine called sciacchetrà, but at Prima Terra he’s showcasing not just his winemaking acumen but the under-discussed terroir of his chosen region. As I’ve noted in past offers, these wines live up to their setting. They take you there. This is especially true of “Carlaz”—100% Vermentino and a full-throttle expression of the Mediterranean. It’s a complete departure from anything you may have tried previously from the Cinque Terre, and we have very little to share, so act fast to secure up to four bottles. NOTE: Stay tuned for its red sibling, from Ligurian-grown Grenache, arriving in your inbox later today.

Because of the fragmented nature of vineyard ownership in Cinque Terre, and the small size of most individual holdings, wine production in the region has long been dominated by a regional cooperative, for which Walter DeBatté once worked. The wines he released under his own label, including those justly famous Sciacchetrà bottlings, were among the few examples of “estate-bottled” Cinque Terre wines seen in export markets. With Prima Terra, De Batté does not use the Cinque Terre DOC designation on labels, not wanting to be hemmed in by the “bureaucratic” constraints of an official denomination of origin (DOC). Carlaz is bottled instead as a vino da tavola (table wine), offering him greater flexibility to showcase the terroir to its fullest. The Prima Terra winery is in Campiglia, in the province of La Spezia, with vineyards concentrated mostly in nearby Riomaggiore, along with a few sites across the border in the Colli di Luni region of Tuscany. 

For the Carlaz bottling, Prima Terra sources Vermentino from old-vine, steep-pitched plantings in the hills of the Val di Magra, a river valley in the La Spezia province. The soils are an alluvial mix of loam, clay, sand, and limestone gravel, and the warm climate allows for a full maturation of the grapes—nevertheless, harvest of the Vermentino doesn’t happen until mid-to-late September, allowing for full “physiological” ripeness as well. Grapes for this wine are de-stemmed, crushed, and left to macerate on their skins briefly (about four days), after which the juice is transferred to used, 500-liter casks for fermentation/aging. It spends about nine months in barrel, on its fine lees, before bottling.

Technically speaking, a wine bottled as a vino da tavola is not allowed to carry a vintage date, so the only indication you’ll find that this wine is from 2019 is a lot number (L02/19) in small type along the edge of the label. In the glass, it has a vibrant golden-amber hue and benefits from a splash-decant and service in larger-sized stems, to really allow its complex aromas to unfold. There’s a heady blast of yellow apple, pear, beeswax, wild herbs, sea salt, and warm spices, sensations that carry over to the taut, medium-bodied palate. There’s just the right touch of skin-derived phenolic bite, very tea-like, that lends the wine grip and savor. Your mouth will start watering immediately upon sampling, and yes, you must cook something appropriately Mediterranean to bring out its best. There’s a great recipe for piccata attached. You pick the fish and get after it. Trust me, it won’t disappoint. Enjoy!