Brich is a collaboration between the Terroirs Project and Gianlucca Rivizza of Agricola Gaia in Monferrato, a winery that consists of over 30 ha of mixed use farmlands, dotted with pockets of vineyards in between old fruit groves and forest of the higher slopes (aka Brich, in local dialect) of this hilly region. These isolated vineyards are grown organically and have been for years. While far outside the big Bs of Piedmont, these slopes are absolutely gorgeous terroir, suffused with biodiversity and the complexities of forest and fallow land. The soils are clay with limestone, which highlights the elegance of the old vines, giving the resulting wines an incisiveness and lift.

Gianlucca’s winemaking style is quite hands-off, which befits beautifully farmed fruit. Grignolino is destemmed, a necessity for the variety, macerates for 6 days, spontaneously ferments and is pressed into concrete. There’s no fining or filtration at the estate, and only a tiny amount of SO2 is used at bottling, making the resulting wines taste alive and fresh, a wonderful bottle to crush while we wait for all our barolos to mature.