A Special Wine with a Timeless Story

From a small vineyard co-planted with Procanico, Verdello and Malvasia, the traditional cultivars of Orvieto. Produced with antique tools and equipment in an ancient Etruscan cave dug out of the tufo (tufeau), beneath a chestnut forest on the property of Palazzone.

Farmed organically, picked by hand, co-fermented with 4 days of skin contact, pressed off the skins in an ancient basket press, fermented in 700 liter chestnut barrels from Palazzone’s own forest and made by a local cooper, spends 12 months in barrel, then some additional months in 50-60L hand-blown demijohns. Removed from demijohn to bottle by siphoning with a rubber hose; hand bottled and corked. “Musco" honors the casual name of the estate’s first effort, bottled in 1983, made for family and friends.

Giovanni tells the story:

“We started making wine about forty years ago; at that time the wine was made for the family and friends; the masters were the farmers of the farm that were handed down traditions and knowledge from afar. The wine was organic, sustainable, not by choice but by mere custom. Same technique for both the white wine and the red: the “cask”, the fermentation on the skins, the pressing by hand, the chestnut barrels (wood from our forests).

The place was crucial; the cave dug into the tufo in the forest, where darkness and humidity were the same as the ones that more than two thousand years before had accompanied the eternal rest of some Etruscan warrior. Then everything changed. The modern oenology, fast, during the growth and the death of a vine, has upset everything. It has made us forget stories, tools and practices rooted in centuries.

With “Musco” we only wanted to rebuild what we experienced with great fortune, not to forget, for a testimony. Far be it from us to think about the attempt of another natural wine! We have dedicated to it a piece of vineyard, stirring the row Procanico, Verdello and Malvasia as was the custom, in order to give birth to a wine already with the imprint of the character of the blend.

We put in use the old hand press that after decades is still able to “play” the ticking gear and we fixed the flywheel pump. We found Antonio, a passionate cooper, an artist more than a craftsman, and together we chose the wooden boards to rebuild the chestnut barrels.

Then everything was done as it once was, simply by following more instinct than technique, more memory than chemistry, more passion than protocol.

This is “Musco” whose name does not have a precise meaning; it’s not just a wine but the desire of those who with care, understanding and the tools of old wish to nurture the retelling of a timeless story.”

Winery: Palazzone
Region: Umbria
Locale: Rocca Ripesena, Italy

Musco was born from a small vineyard planted with Procanico, Verdello and Malvasia grapes mixed in rows. Produced without the use of electricity, this wine matures and refines for several months, following traditional techniques. Even bottling is done by hand.

Visit the winery website or view the fact sheet for additional technical information!