Croci 'Lubigo' Vino Frizzante Bianco 2021

Press 4 Mix/White • August 2023 Direct Press Selection Croci is a small estate, currently run by vignaiolo Massimiliano Croci whose grandfather started the estate in 1935. They, too, hail from the hills around Piacenza, just east of Lombardy. Milk was originally the main focus of the farm until 1970 when Massimiliano’s father realized they couldn’t compete on the same level with industrial farms, and switched to wine production exclusively. Today it is still just 16 hectares with only about half of that planted to vines. The rest of the property is used for dairy cows, grain, hay, and pasture, and production is about 40,000 bottles a year. Their vineyards and winery are located in the Val Arda, named after a small tributary of the tremendous Po River. Their plots are mainly steep hillsides of old vines at 250-300 meters of elevation on soils made of loose sand full of fossilized, limestone-rich seashells (evidence of a time when the land was once an ocean floor) and red clay. The vines