WHY BE CURIOUS: Beach vines! Beach wines! The unique Bosco Eliceo has vines on the beach, and a long tradition of making frizzante metodo ancestrale wines with extremely old vines, some reaching more than 100 years old.

WHO: the ever charming and quirky Mirco Mariotti; recreational Sèt e Mèz card player (similar to Blackjack).

WHERE: Emilia-Romagna region, in the unique seacoast area of the Bosco Eliceo, the “one grand cru for the rare Fortana grape.”* Salty, sandy, windy, with alternating fog and sun makes for a dramatic place for vines to grow.

TASTE: Frizzante pressure, vinified bone dry. Tart red cherry, sea salt, high hats riffs of bitter quinine.

Mirco Mariotti's vineyards are located in the eastern ‘Romagna’ part of Emilia-Romagna, an area much less known than the western Lambrusco area of Emilia. In fact, you’ll notice that Mirco’s wines use an Emilia IGP designation for what should be Romagna IGP – if only it existed. Nevertheless, it’s a place with lots of local color, there’s a beach nearby, and folks often play cards here into the night, accompanied by sweating bottles of their own DIY sparkling wines from the local grapes. Mirco, too, had started off making some of these DIY wines made from his own vineyards in the Bosco Eliceo area. The vines are old, some planted in 1952, some well over 100 years old. All are on native rootstock (piede franco), as they are planted in the beach sand, just 300 meters from the waves. Mirco chooses to work exclusively with the local varieties: Fortana, the low alcohol, high acid red with some pretty rustic-rusty tannins, ideal for a refreshing rosato, and Trebbiano Romagnolo and Malvasia di Candia for the bianco, where the savory, herbal, salty aspect of growing vines so close to the beach really comes through. After hand harvesting, the first fermentations are all with native yeasts in concrete tank. Secondary fermentation is in bottle, using must from the same harvest instead of adding sugar. There is one gentle decantation, but other than that, the wines are not filtered or disgorged. Kick off your sandals, light up the grill, deal the cards. This farmer fizz is a good bet on rare, local varieties that are unique, delicious, and without pretense.