Cabanon: A sense of taste & place

A good wine satisfies the palate. . . A great wine also has a sense of place

Nowhere is this more true than in the joyous wines of CABANON in the OLTREPO PAVESE, just below Milan and Pavia in this corner of the “ancient Piedmont” that is now part of Lombardy. Milan is the center of Italian fashion, and the wines of Cabanon are in fashion with Milanese cuisine.

Click for Cabanon website www.Cabanon.it

CABANON BLANC 2004 Opera Prima - Extremely low yields produce high quality wine from the first cuttings of Sauvignon Blanc planted at 1500 ft. in arid, chalky soil. Light straw color with highly developed bouquet, full bodied with intense flavors.

CABANON AUGURIO 2004 - Everything about this wine supports the name “Augurio” which means “good omen” for the wine – from its nose of ripe fruit to the burst of flavors. Whatever your varietal preference, you’ll find it in this “Super-Blend” of Bonarda, Barbera, Pinot Noir, Syrah, Cabernet and Merlot. A magnificent balancing act and a real crowd pleaser – plus organic certification.

BONARDA VIVACE 2005 - At last, a sparkling red wine of real elegance and quality! Perfect served slightly chilled with hors d’oeuvre, pasta, salmon, chicken, turkey and spicy dressings. 100% from organically grown Bonarda grapes, harvest when fully ripe with a brief refermentation in the bottle without forcing or the use of autoclaves. An eventual deposit is natural.

BONARDA BOISEÉ 2003 - Like Barbera, Bonarda is realizing a major renaissance recalling the time when it dominated 30% or the nearby Piedmonte production. Along with Barbera it is a very friendly wine with rich fruit that can achieve great elegance in exceptional years when Cabanon bottles a Riserva (Boiseé). One year aging in small casks with periodic transfers into burnt woods, giving the wine a highly refined aroma-taste. Certified from Organically Grown Grapes.

Cuore di Vino 2003 La Botte No.18 - Named after the historic Barrel No. 18, this is both a great wine and, perhaps, the only commercial wine in the western world to be allowed to make claims for one’s health by the (Italian) government. This wonderful blend of Bonarda(25%), Cabernet Sauvignon(50%) and Merlot(25%) from organically grown grapes is featured in the top restaurants of Pavia. A wine of great substance with intense aroma and complexity, it personifies the producer’s effort to combine quality with healthy eating, ”Cuore di Vino”, Wine’s Heart. Produced from extremely low-yield vineyards, aged in Slavonian oak barrels for 18 months and in the bottle for 6 mos.

The Foundation Cologni dei Mestieri d’Arte, which supports Cartier and the Richemont Group’s international school of design recently purchased 3,000 bottles of similar Cabanon wine under the Latin label “CORVITIS” for a charitable promotion along with publishing a new book on the history of wine, Il Vignaiolo Mestieri d’Arte (The Wine Maker), that describes Cabanon as the ultimate 21st Century producer. Paolo Massobrio’s 2006 guide, Il Golosario, ranked Corvitis among the top 100 wines of Italy.

The international heart specialist conference in Rome purchased 3000 bottles of Cuore di Vino to provide two bottles for each of 1500 doctors attending. In 1977, Cabanon sought to discover and include the health-giving circulatory effects of the French wine that used to be prescribed by physicians for purchase in French pharmacies until 1950. The research resulted in a maceration of green shoots from the vines that provided just the right kind of soft tannins in the wine that are said to be good for one’s heart and circulation.

CABANON INFERNOT 2000 - Only the tips are taken from these bunches of late harvested grapes from Uva Rara, Bonarda and Barbera, then left to dry on mats for several months. After three years maturation, the wine develops a complex balance of rich flavors with just hint of profound sweetness.

VINO del BOSCO 2003 - This “Wine of the Forest” evokes the intense perfume of wild flowers and lush foliage. The rich, dark fruit flavors reach deep to draw up earthy tones, finishing with an appealing passito sweetness balanced by soft tannins. Made from very limited amounts of almost extinct varietals – Uva rara, la Cascina and Vespolina - preserved by Cabanon in the Staffora Valley where Lombardy meets the Piedmont. Hand-written/style front label, individually numbered.

Highest Ratings of all red bio wines
Both CuoreDiVino 2000 and Infernot 2000 are rated among the 28 Best Organically produced wines in the 2004 Guida ai Vini d’Italia Bio; Infernot also acclaimed the most unique wine of the entire guide.
Great wines of the Oltrepo Pavese from the Mercandelli Family Showing that fine wines can be the same as healthy, certified organic wines.

This family-run winery has been cultivating its own vineyards since 1909, using biological methods to produce grapes and wine which fully respect the consumers’ health. It is one of the leading wineries in the world producing wines from grapes that are certified organically grown, even long before government certification. The vineyards stretch for 40 hectares on the hillsides above Godiasco in the Oltrepo Pavese, the ancient Piedmont, now part of Lombardy. All of the Cabanon vineyards are widely separated from other producers so they cannot be contaminated by chemical sprays used by others. When 9 hectares recently became infested by a pest, 22,500 15-year old vines were uprooted and will be totally replanted when safe.