The ‘NV’ in the description stands for ‘non-vintage’, meaning that the wine is made from the product of more than one single year. Federico has made what he calls his ‘perpetual cuvée’ - a wine that slowly changes and evolves over time.

The idea is a little like a simplified version of the Solera system used in Spanish sherry-making. Each year wine is added to a tank that already contains wine from up to ten previous vintages; wine is then bottled from that tank roughly every six weeks throughout the year with wine taken from all the available vessels in the cellar to top it up again. Next vintage more new wine is added to the tank, and so the process continues.

This results in fresh, zesty notes from the young Pignoletto, and savoury, nutty notes from the Pignoletto that has had more time to mature in the tank. The wine will also display subtle differences depending on which bottling it comes from - check the back of the label to see when yours is dated. Always different, always the same.