Pulled from from an organic vineyard outside of Bologna, this is a dense, dry, and deeply hued orange wine. Fruit sees a whopping 240 days of skin contact in cement before aging in stainless steel; no sulfur is added at any point and there's no filtering or fining. Florals and herbs lead first – jasmine, orange blossom, smoked hay, and sage – followed by citrus peels, melon, preserved stone fruit, and spiced Darjeeling tea. With plenty of depth, structure, loads of fruit and subtle earth, 'Vej' has it all: textured and complex, with candied orange peel, unctuous lavender, and purple basil flower roiling through out, think electric peach Jelly Belly meets a more tannic, herbal, and tea-like finish.
Alberto and Claudia Carretti are the brains and brawn behind the Podere Paradolo estate, whose wines have garnered a cult-status among the natural wine community over the years. They work in Serravelle, a small town in the Parma hills, where they endeavor to create modern wines while maintaining ancient influence and reverence – so goes the ethos that undergirds the extended macerations and long aging of both their red and white-wine grapes, very much on display with their flagship 'Vej' bottlings. Purchased in 1972 and converted to viticulture and winemaking in 1989, Alberto’s vision of a rigorously low-intervention venture has guided each and every step along the way, capturing the history and natural bounty of the region here, at the edge of the Po River valley and the Ligurian Apennines, where a good diurnal range and cooling breezes imbue the grapes with exceptionally complex aromas. Long since certified organic and using biodynamic practices, the couple tends to 5 hectares of local variety grapes planted to clay-limestone soils; in the cellar there are only native fermentations, no filtering nor fining, and zero SO2.