Fulvio Luca Bressan is the ninth generation of master winemaker to tend this tiny vineyard dating back to the 1600s in this historically rich corner of Italy.

The Bressan Mastri Voinai Winery is a study in extremes–from the harsh climate to an aggressively individualistic approach to winemaking and the devotion to the purity of the grape vines and the craft itself.

But the great news for us is that the wine itself is a beauty and a perfect medium to unlock some facts about this interesting corner of the world.

Check out the family website…They tell their story with interspersed tales of Roman rule, the ‘Fruilian’ Celts coming from the woods to vanquish the Romans and yarns of occupation and conquest from the Huns at these crossroads of the ancient world.

The Bressan Winery is in the town of Mariano del Fruili in the Friuili-Venezia Giulia appellation in North-Eastern Italy on the border of Slovenia. This unusual and tasty terroir is created by the sloping vineyards of the Isonzo River Valley, shielded to the north by the Julian Alps and open to the hot winds of the Adriatic Sea from the south. This protected ‘hot spot’ in a harsh climate allows the grapes to mature early but sparsely, and defines the character of the wine with medium acidity and deep natural tannins.

This is a powerful bottle of red wine.

Schioppenttino (also known as Ribolla Nera) is an indigenous grape grown by just a few winemakers. It makes a deep, rich and complex wine that in the hands of a natural wine producer like Bressan takes on an earthy undertone with an impossibly long finish. Terrific wine with food. I’ve been drinking this instead of Cabs and it is my new choice when I need a big, bold red.

To clarify Bressan’s relationship to organic, he believes that the rules are not stringent enough. Only indigenous grapes and yeasts, biodynamic vineyards, no irrigation, manual harvesting, no sulfites and no filtration.

With this winemaker you are drinking the land as it is.

Bressan, like a few other living wine makers, dedicates the wine to the terroir and to a process of letting the grape live in the wine. If you choose to believe that you can taste extremes…fruity but complex, rich with reserved alcohol levels, and just a smack of freshness on the palate, this bottle is worth an evening of your time.

Try this bottle from an intriguing winemaker with history interwoven in the grapes themselves.

Average price is $35.99. I bought mine from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa NYC.

Discovering the wines of Piedmont is a wonderful shock of recognition. Diversity, complexity and a sense of awe are predictably the first thoughts after tasting a new vintage from yet another incredible winemaker.

The Piedmont is something uniquely its own from all the other wine regions of Italy. The region has its own character but the Nebbiolo grape is startingly different from DOC to DOC, and from hillside to hillside, and often from one winemaker to another on adjacent vineyards.

Boca is a tiny DOC in the province of Novara in the northern part of the Piedmont. The appellation mandates a blended red wine with a minimum of 45% and a maximum of 70% Nebbiolo grapes and the remaining composed mainly of Vespolina and small portions of Uva Rara.

The region, mostly limestone and clay imparts a crisp acidity to the grape which carries the flavor and lets the bottle age and change and improve in the cellar for decades. Drink now and cellar forever is the motto for the wines from Boca.

The Castello Conti vineyard tells its own unique story through this bottle of ‘rosso dell donne’ or ‘the women’s red”. The vineyard was established in 1969 by the father, Ermanno, and in the late 90s, he gave it to his three daughters: Paola, Anna and Elena to run the vineyards and the winery. This winery and the wonderful Occhipinti winery in Sicily are the only two Italian vineyards I know of that are 100% under the control of women winemakers. Can I taste the difference? I choose to believe I can in both cases.

The daughters have continued the family tradition of living wines. Only indigenous yeasts are used. No wines are filtered. Underplanting is observed to reduce production per acre. And the winery uses no pesticides, observing the practice of planting wild fava beans amongst vines, a natural pest deterrent and a source of organic nutrients to the soil.

The Conti ‘05 Boca Il Rosso Delle Donne is really a delicious and rich and tempered bottle of wine. After sipping through a couple of bottles this week and taste testing against other Nebbiolos from Piedmont, I am now able to isolate and taste the spiciness of the Vespolina grape.

With food or just sipping while blogging or hanging out, this is a wine for every part of the evening…or even a warm spring afternoon. It’s easy to drink but constantly letting out new flavors as it opens up. Decanting is a great way to help the flavors come out more quickly.

I’m a believer in this bottle and will stay a fan of this vineyard.

Available from Chambers Street Wines in TriBeCa NYC for $39.99.

I never pause at the Amarone section of my local wine shop. High alcohol content, low acidity, price and a pension towards heavy foods usually make me skip this quirky wine.

But a bargain is a bargain, especially when a close out for the heralded organic Trabucchi estate showed up locally. With forced low yields, natural yeast and a commitment to hand drying…and at less than $30 a bottle, I gave a few bottles a try.

The concentrated flavors and colors of Amarone come from the drying process, called logically in Italian appassiemento or rasinate (to ‘dry and shrivel’). Grapes are dried for 120 days, super intensifying the sugars and focusing all of the attention on the quality of the grape skin. It is that quality that dictates the tannins of the finished wine. The actual weight of the grape is reduced by 20-60% and the fermentation process slows to a crawl through the lack of moisture. In some cases up to 2 months! An odd and complex and laborious process from start to finish.

I don’t know the origins, the ‘why’ of this process, but previously the result, while interesting was a non-match for my palate. This particular bottle went a long way towards changing this.

I can’t know whether it is the craft of the Trabucchis, the organic and restrained process making the wine or the fact that 2002 overall created brighter and lighter wines in the region. What I do know is that I was surprised and it opened my imagination to something new.

This bottle is intense, concentrated, and full-bodied but the tannins are palpable and seem to layer the taste with a lightness that lifts the bouquet somehow. The fruit is juicy and fresh…remarkable since the wine is made from dried grapes!

If you can find this bottle, you might give it a try. Needs some food to pair with this. It was elegant enough and complimentary with a whole-wheat pasta and a chunk of grilled fish.

From Chambers Street Wines at $29.99 a bottle.

My fascination with the wines of the Piedmont region is growing. And I’m fast becoming intoxicated by the chameleon-like diversity of the Nebbiolo grape.

Barolos, Barbarescos and Nebbiolo varietals are all made from the identical grape, in very close proximity geographically, but are distinctly different from one another. Not subtly, but dramatically.

I’ve always understand terroir, but now I can truly taste it!

This shock of recognition came over a bottle of Barbaresco Cascina Crosa from the hands of the late master Pelissero Pasquale. A self proclaimed ‘farmer’ and one of the first producers in Neive, he produced wine only for family and neighbors. Some of it is dribbling out and made its way to my local wine shop in NYC.

A thankful find of flavor.

The ’04 Barbaresco Cascina Crosa is a pleasure and surprise. It is less complex than Nebbiolo D’Alba from Cappellano, but rich, concentrated, aromatic and fruit forward. It tastes young but not rough, rich without being saturated and full of flavor without being overdone. And soft soft tannins that I can’t place in any other wine, Nebbiolo or not.

A terrific wine with food or a chunk of cheese or pasta…or just about anything.

Technically the Nebbiolo grape stock in Barolo and Barbaresco are identical. It is completely a function of place, of terroir, that creates the difference. Less than 10 miles from the heart of Barolo wine country, Pasquale’s hilltop vineyard is a unique microclimate. The grapes ripen earlier, which drives shorter fermentation and maceration periods. It is the soil and climate which mandates the winemaking and defines the character of the wine.

The result is a completely different wine, which can be drunk younger and is very approachable…and more affordable than the Barolos or even some of the rock star varietals. With this wine I feel like I’m in the hands of a master organic farmer more than a sophisticated vintner. I’m tasting the food from the land, more so than the wine from the vat.

My suggestion.

Find a bottle of Pasquale’s Barbaresco, a bottle of Bruno Pasquero ‘04 Nebbiolo D’Alba Vignadogna and one of Cappellano ‘05 Langhe Nebbiolo D’Alba, bring over some friends, a chunk of cheese and a Caprese salad and take a taste trip through the countryside of the Piedmont.

This is a guaranteed fun geography lesson.

Available online and from Chambers Street Wines for $35 a bottle.

It’s been a fun Italian journey, drinking my way up from the southeastern tip of Sicily through Puglia, with a stop in Tuscany to the Piedmont region.

And this weekend I spent sipping Nebbiolo grown in Vezza D’Alba and created by the winemaker, Bruno Pasquero.

Nebbiolo is a fussy grape, requiring sunny hillsides and soil that is just so. Maybe that’s why Barolos are so unique, their winemakers so serious and the prices…so astronomical.

But I’ve been enjoying and singing the praises of the under appreciated Nebbiolo varietal. And this one is really outstanding. Made from 30-year old vines and aged in large ancient oak barrels, Vigndogna is certainly distinct from our idea of a Barolo but also from other great Nebbiolo varietals, like the Cappellano ‘05 Langhe Nebbiolo D’Alba.

As well, been stumped on why this Nebbiolo is just so different and bold and forward. My friend and wine expert, Christopher Barnes, from Chambers Street Wines thinks its most likely the soil and the microclimate of the locale. Vezza D’Alba is a bit off center from other Nebbiolo vineyards and maybe that’s the reason.

What I do know with certainty is that this is a rare find for the lover of Italian wine. The bottle has the deep aroma and complexity of the Barolo but is bolder, richer with fruit and distinctive. Just a great wine to sip and enjoy and relish.

At $22 a bottle this is a gift to the wine lover. I can’t recommend this one enough.

Available from Chambers Street Wines.