Winemaking on the Castello di Tassarolo estate in Piemonte, Italy, dates back to 1367.

In the early 2000s Massimiliana Spinola inherited the estate and converted it to biodynamic farming, breathing new life back into a tired soil. Some of you may have bought her wines in the past, including the ‘Titouan’ Barbera, named after the first heavy horse to pull the plough between the vines.

Now there’s new generation moving into view, as Massimiliana’s teenage son Ato has made his own range of small batch wines. You can see his distinctive dreadlocks on the labels for this three different expressions of the Cortese di Gavi grape – one sparkling, one still, and one macerated (‘orange’).

Ato’s intention is to go further into natural winemaking, to rub the polish off of Gavi and to produce something breathing, rough, real.

This macerated/orange wine is fermented in an amphora, which perhaps enhances its  dry, saline and uncompromising character. The aromas are surprisingly refined, with notes of lemon pith, dried apricot, root ginger and mandarin orange.

This is a sipper of some depth, or a versatile food wine  – think seafood, pasta, pesto, white meats or firm and salty cheeses. Pass the Pecorino, perhaps?