Tasting Notes: The second of Bea’s two early and highly influential skin-macerated white wines, “Santa Chiara” hails from the fabled Pagliaro cru, and combines roughly equal proportions of five varieties: Garganega, Grechetto, Malvasia, Sauvignon, and Chardonnay. Everything ferments together, without any additions or temperature regulation, in stainless steel, and the wine is given several years of settling before being bottled without fining or filtration. This wine cuts an impressive figure: amply fruited (dried apricots, peach nectar), unapologetically tannic yet lip-smackingly so, and with a delicious complicating note of chicken bouillon. There’s nothing shy about this wine, but it manages to be as drinkable as it is thought-provoking and complex.
