2019 Nino Franco Nodi Prosecco DOCG

When Nino Franco discovered the Col del Vent vineyard in 2014, he said it was like taking a step back in time. He found the tiny plot above Valdobbiadene hosted, in excellent health, 100-year-old vines of biotypes of Glera that have long since been replaced in the region by modern clonal selections. The following year, with the help of master pruner Marco Simonit (consultant among others to Yquem, Latour and Roederer), he produced the first wine from the vineyard. He named it Nodi, or ‘knots’, referring to the gnarled trunks of the ancient vines. The 2019 has aromas of herbs, spring flowers and white fruit, a distinct mineral nuance and a crisply incisive palate of extraordinary length and crystalline purity. A wine of great finesse.

The 2019 Prosecco Superiore Nodi is more savory than sweet, with dusty florals and herbal nuances giving way to crushed yellow apples. This cascades across the palate with a chiseled bead of saline-infused bubbles, as notes of bakes apple and brown spice evolve toward the close. The 2019 finishes fresh with a tart citrus tension and a salty flourish mixed with hints of raw almond.