Bacacan is the name of a winery in Valtellina created by Angelo Sega and currently run by his sons Luca and Matteo, based in San Giaco di Teglio, in the Valgella sub-area, about 15 kilometers from Sondrio. Teglio is the town that gives the name to the whole denomination as Valtellina is a term that comes from the union of the noun “Valle” (Valley) and the adjective “Tellina” or “from Tellum” the ancient Latin name of Teglio. The importance of this wine-growing area is beyond the simple average quality of the wines produced, as the most recent studies seem to show how the Nebbiolo grape was born here, where it takes the name of Chiavennasca, probably from the mutation and spontaneous crossing of vines such as Rossola, Bugnola and Pignola. With regard to this last aspect, the Barbacàn winery continues to carry out a valuable safeguard work, also cultivating these old vines now almost completely forgotten.
Today the winery has a total of 6.5 hectares of land, arranged on the typical terraces at a height of 300 to 500 meters, managed with maximum naturalness and minimum interventionism. At Barbacan, respect for the ampelographic heritage inherited is a work to be carried out with dedication, respecting, treating and repropagating, by mass selection, all the biotypes of Chiavennasca present in their vineyards, where they also grow pre-phylloxera plants of more than 100 years and. At the base of this work there is the choice to exalt biodiversity, which can also be found in the decision to spontaneously allow the interlayer to grow up, in order to try to give the wines a not homologated personality. Naturalness is a concept that, of course, is also applied to cellar work, with the choice of spontaneous fermentations, without temperature control, by means of indigenous yeasts, and the rejection of the classic operations of clarification, filtration and stabilization. Since the vinification spaces are reduced and the bottles produced are not many, barrels of 225 liters of second or third passage have been chosen for the aging, less bulky and easier to be filled completely.
One of the last wines to be produced is Valtellina Superiore Valgella Livèl produced by the homonymous Vigna Livèl planted in the 1920s, at 550 meters, on a particularly south-facing lean soil that guarantees a very low production. It is a blend of Chiavennasca, Rossola, Pignola and Brugnola (the signature of this winery) which, compared to other wines, performs the spontaneous fermentation in wood.
The 2017 vintage has a light but rather brilliant ruby color, with an olfactory range that opens on tones of cooked plum, pomegranate, black cherry garnet and pot pourri, followed by orange peel, sweet black olive, humus, eucalyptus and vinyl, with echoes of dried mushroom, medium-ripened tobacco and graphite. The palate is crossed by great citric freshness, which leaves a savory/mineral tail, flanked by a discreet softness and a slight tannin (good workmanship); all enriched by the return of the black cherry grenade, red fruit and spices that accompany the sip until a good length closing on eucalyptus notes.
Rating: 89/100
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