..wines from left field
The path well-travelled is well-travelled for a reason; typicity, reputation, popularity and ubiquity all play a part in defining the most successful and well-known wines, regions and styles on the market. We fully embrace that - and it certainly helps when it comes to selling Rioja! - but there’s always room for a sprinkling of the unknown, the experimental, the esoteric…
This is where these producers come in, a motley crew of winemakers who plough their own furrow to produce off-the-beaten-track wines that are like stardust in the moreno portfolio.
From out-there Spaniards flying by the seat of their pants with ancient indigenous varieties, to Italian brothers taking a hands-off approach in Friuli these producers and their wines simply beg to be explored and we champion them with all our heart and energy.
Spanish Experimentalists
Five litres of Tempranillo in a bag is not something marketed by most Spanish wineries, but Democratic are different. They push envelopes and do things differently as part of their vision to make wines fun and innovative. They make brilliant organic wine from old vine Xarel-lo and Cabernet from the heart of Catalonia.
The Malaga region of Spain is better known for sweet wines than for hearty reds, but Chinchilla is on a mission to change this view. Making wine in the city of Ronda founders José Maria Losantos and his wife Gema Alonso are as experimental in their approach as they are passionate. Their Roble is a blend of Tempranillo and Tintilla de Rota; it’s punchy and smooth with red fruit, toasted spices and rosemary.
Italian Family Wineries
The future of winemaking relies heavily on the way that farmers, winemakers and - we as importers - treat the environment; this is after all the primary building block of every wine. We are proud to work with the Catalici brothers whose respect for nature and ancient winemaking traditions in their native Tuscany impresses us greatly. The brothers produce boutique-scale Chianti Classico and Super Tuscan wines.
We are thrilled to work with Anna Maria Abbona, one of Piedmont’s first female winemakers. Anna makes wine in the Barolo, Dogliani and Langhe DOCs, all of her wines are made from organically grown grapes, many of which come from old vines planted by her grandfather in the 1930s. This is a real family affair; with her husband Franco an important part of the team.
The Perusini vineyards in Friuli are adjacent to the Slovenian border, and it is here where three brothers, along with their parents, grow the organic grapes for their stable of minimum-intervention wines. The focus here is on terroir, with as little interference in the winery as possible, resulting in low-sulphite wines that are bright, fresh and talk softly of this unique land.
Planet Conscious Producers
This modern winery is based in Cazalla de la Sierra in the heart of Sierra Norte de Sevilla Natural Park, and you can’t get much closer to nature than that. The wines are all certified organic and low on the sulphites spectrum, and the fruit comes from steep vineyards on slate and limestone soils, where huge diurnal shifts retains freshness and acidity.
Great value terroir-focussed wines are what Torri Cantini is all about. Its historical cellars are set among the beautiful and fertile Teramo hills in Abruzzo where Pecorino, Trebbiano and Montepulciano are the key components. All wines are organically farmed and patience and precision are high on the list in everything that happens in the vineyard and winery.
Another organic Italian producer, this time further south in Sorrento. The Sorrentino wines comes from the volcanic slopes of Mount Vesuvius and are mineral-driven organic wines with flair and structure. The Sorrentino Vini story is one of passionate winemaking with unique characteristics from a family with viticulture in its DNA.