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Le Coste

Ripazzo Bianco 2019

Price: $29.95
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Tasting notes

This is a genuinely peculiar wine in the best sense: a skin-contact white built on near-extinct Roscetto and the local Trebbiano alias Procanico, fermented on volcanic tuffaceous soils at altitude above Italy's largest volcanic lake. The orange peel and apricot fruit, saline mineral finish, and grippy tannins make it unlike anything from better-known Italian appellations.

BodyFruitTanninAcidity
Orange PeelApricotMelonEarth
  • Style: Dry, medium-bodied orange wine; deep amber-orange; citrus peel, apricot, earth, saline finish; 12% ABV
  • Grapes & Terroir: Procanico, Malvasia, Roscetto; certified organic and biodynamic; iron-rich tuffaceous volcanic soils; 450-600m elevation, Gradoli, northern Lazio
  • Winemaking: Skin-contact fermentation with native yeasts; aged in old oak barrels; unfined, unfiltered, no added sulfites
  • Serving: Serve at 54-58F; 20-30 min decant opens up the texture
  • Pairing: Cacio e pepe, grilled mackerel, aged pecorino, roasted pork with herbs, sardines
  • Similar To: For fans of Friulian skin-contact whites or Georgian qvevri wines who want volcanic Italian terroir

Ripazzo Bianco is a skin-contact orange wine from Le Coste in Gradoli, northern Lazio, made from a field blend of Procanico, Malvasia, and Roscetto grown on iron-rich volcanic soils above Lago di Bolsena. The name is a wordplay on "ripasso" and "pazzo" (Italian for crazy), pointing to its unconventional origin: in its first vintage, a batch that stalled in fermentation was re-started by passing it over the skins of the next harvest's Litrozzo Bianco grapes. The 2019 is fermented dry with native yeasts on the skins, then aged in old oak barrels. Bottled unfined, unfiltered, with no added sulfites.

Procanico is the local name for Trebbiano Toscano and forms the structural backbone of this blend. Roscetto is an ancient indigenous variety nearly extinct outside northern Lazio. The vineyards sit at approximately 450 to 600 meters elevation in Gradoli, where tuffaceous volcanic soils derived from ancient caldera activity deliver pronounced mineral grip and low natural yields.

The result is a deep, amber-orange wine with mouth-watering acidity, notable tannic texture from skin contact, and a long dry herbal finish. Notes of orange peel, apricot, melon, and earth run through the palate. The finish carries a saline, mineral edge characteristic of the Lake Bolsena terroir.

The tannic structure and acidity cut through fatty preparations well: try it with cacio e pepe, grilled oily fish such as mackerel or sardines, or a board of aged sheep's milk cheeses. Its herbal, bitter-citrus finish also works alongside roasted pork with herbs.

Wine details

Dry/Sweet:, Dry
Wine Type:, Orange Wine
Wine Style:, Medium Body
Grapes:, Procanico, Malvasia, Roscetto
Farming:, Organic and Biodynamic
Vintage:, 2019
Alcohol:, 12%
Country:, Italy
Region:, Lazio
Appellation:, Vino Bianco Biologico, Lazio
Bottle Size:, 750ml
Sugar Level:, Zero Added Sugar

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.


Important Compliance Requirements

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If you'd like to receive a refund for a package that was returned to us after FedEx made three delivery attempts, we can do that but we must keep a $20 refund fee; FedEx charges us a lot of money for returns, unfortunately, I can't stress this enough.


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Placed an order. What next?

1. You will receive an order confirmation email with your order summary.*

2. As soon as your order ships from the warehouse, usually within 2-3 business days, this applies to all shipping rates, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with your tracking information. 2DAY shipping refers to shipping time; we still need 2-3 business days to prepare an order. We need to pick and pack, QA, add printed collateral, and palletize the orders.

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Returns Policy

If you are not satisfied with your purchase, please contact us at (424) 414-2040 or via e-mail at hello@primalwine.com between 9 am and 5 pm Pacific Standard Time, Monday through Sunday, we would like to understand and try to solve your concerns. We can offer refunds only as store credit.

Producer profile

Le Coste

Le Coste was founded in 2004 when Gianmarco Antonuzzi and Clémentine Bouveron purchased a three-hectare plot of abandoned land in Gradoli, Gianmarco's childhood town in northern Lazio. Before returning to Italy, Antonuzzi trained in France alongside noted vignerons including Bruno Schueller in Alsace, Didier Barral in Languedoc, Jean-Paul Thévenet in Beaujolais, and Philippe Pacalet in Burgundy. It was in Alsace that he met Bouveron, who brought agronomic and oenological training to the project. The estate has since grown to approximately 14 hectares divided between vineyards, olive groves, chestnut and oak forest, and orchard.

The farm sits at 450 to 600 meters elevation above Lago di Bolsena on volcanic tuffaceous soils rich in iron and minerals. Farming is certified organic and biodynamic. Vines are planted at densities of up to 10,000 plants per hectare using massale selections and ungrafted vines, trained low as bush vines supported by chestnut posts. The estate cultivates indigenous northern Lazio varieties including Procanico, Roscetto, Malvasia, Verdello, Petino, Romanesco, Aleatico, and Moscato, some of which Antonuzzi has helped rescue from near-extinction in the area.

All winemaking takes place in a centuries-old cellar in the center of Gradoli village. Fermentation is spontaneous with native yeasts. The cellar uses gravity for all transfers, with no pumps. Wines age in a combination of old oak barrels, large botti, fiberglass tanks, and in some cases terracotta amphorae depending on the cuvee. Nothing is added at any stage: no fining agents, no filtration, no sulfur additions.

Wine region

Lazio, Italy

Lazio is a large central Italian region stretching from the Tyrrhenian coast inland to the Apennines, with Rome as its capital. Northern Lazio, specifically the area around Lago di Bolsena, sits at the southern edge of ancient Etruria and has a viticultural history predating Roman times. Lago di Bolsena is Italy's largest volcanic lake, formed in a collapsed caldera, and its surrounding hills are composed of tuffaceous, iron-rich volcanic soils that drain well and impart pronounced mineral character to the wines grown on them. The climate in this northern zone is neither fully Mediterranean nor continental: lake breezes moderate summer heat and cool nights slow ripening, preserving natural acidity.

The region is historically recognized for white wines, most famously Frascati DOC in the Castelli Romani hills south of Rome, and Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone DOC on the shores of Lago di Bolsena itself, both based on Malvasia and Trebbiano. Indigenous varieties including Procanico (the local Trebbiano Toscano), Roscetto, Verdello, Aleatico, and Grechetto Rosso have long roots in northern Lazio but fell into obscurity during the twentieth century. A small group of producers centered around Gradoli and the Bolsena shoreline, led by estates like Le Coste, have revived these varieties through biodynamic farming and low-intervention winemaking, drawing international attention to this historically undervalued zone.

Frequently asked question

We will process and ship your order in 2-3 business days, you will receive a shipping confirmation email with tracking as soon as the Carrier scans the shipping label.

Ground shipping time depends on location, here's a breakdown:

West Coast: 1-2 business days
Midwest: 3-4 business days
East Coast: 5 business days

Process time is not shipping time. Shipping time starts from the days successive to the day of shipping, after the order has been processed.

See here our shipping policy.

Signature on delivery is mandatory for wine deliveries. Please make sure someone is at the shipping address to sign for the package.

If applicable, please consider delivering the package to a business address to ensure someone is available to sign for the package.

We also have the option of delivering the package to a Carrier's store for pickup. Please reach out to us to coordinate.

Carrier will try to delivery a package up to three times before returning the package to us.

See here our shipping policy.

If you miss a delivery and a package gets returned to us we have two options:

1) Reship the package right away: due to the very high cost of shipping and returns, we must charge a re-shipping fee to be determined based on package size and shipping destination.

2) Consolidate the returned package with your next order: this option is free of charge and it's the most popular option.

See here our shipping policy.

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