Corrado Dottori has been a star of the Natural Wine Movement(tm) since Jonathan Nossiter featured him in his film, Natural Resistance. But that's not why we love him. We love him because he makes beautiful wines that are wildly alive and also pure and delicious. They're fascinating if you want to pay attention, but crushable if you just want to drink something great.

True, it helps that he's the sort of fascinating guy who went home to his family's abandoned vineyards high up in the Marche's Cupramontana and began rehabbing buildings and land. It helps that even the labels are beautiful. It's interesting, if you're into these sorts of things, that he makes the wine with almost no interventions, that after fermentation (on natural yeasts, of course) he lets it sit undisturbed for a whole year, just chilling. And it's cool that he makes the wine so carefully that he doesn't have to use any sulfur until he adds some at bottling to make the wine safe for travel.

But even if you didn't know any of that, just tasting this beautiful red wine at 6 years old would tell the whole story. It's full of red fruit-berry goodness, and some sour cherry from the Sangiovese. And it's a little bit earthy with a subtle irony depth from the Montepulciano in this particular terroir. And there's a touch of animally funk too -- though it's pretty restrained on that front. With a few years in the bottle, the wine has really come together: it's fresh and bright and totally open for business. The high-elevation vineyards give it a lovely, bright acidity, perfect for pairing not just with Italian food (obviously!) but even a burger off the grill.


La Distesa Marche Rosso Nocenzio 2018 - $34.99