Nadia Verrua, la padronina of Cascina ‘Tavijn works in an area of the Asti province of Piedmont long forgotten. Fortunately it is an area blessed with old vines, some completely abandoned, and unique varieties. Nadia is young, gifted and very professional. She has taken over the family’s estate where her father still manages the vineyard work. The cellar, however, is all Nadia’s.

For the moment, Nadia is working only with Barbera, Grignolino and Ruché, the latter two being native indigenous varietals of the area that have seen a small, cultish rise in popularity in recent years, and for good reason. Grignolino is a grape that makes a pale, light red of garnet color and, when finely made, shows the characteristic bitter cherry, or amarena, flavor that gopes so well with lighter first courses of dried sausages and hard cheeses, like well-aged asiago. Ruché, on the other hand, produces a wine of saturated purple with plum notes and rose petal aromas. It is made to be drunk young and, again is a perfect wine for salumi, dried meats like bresaola or dried cacciorini and hard, aged cheeses.

Nadia uses traditional techniques to produce the wines. The grapes are hand harvested and vinifed in large casks, or botti, of slavonian oak. At the moment she does a light filtration at the insistance of her enologist and bottler, but we are hoping to convince her to forgo this in future vintages. She seems somewhat agreable on this. Her mother, on the other hand, is all for it.

This is Nadia’s first experience importing wines. She is very proud of the work she does, but, moreover, very gratified that there are winelovers on another continent that are pleased with the results of her efforts.