Nicola Gatta, Febo, VdT NV - 75cl
Nicola Gatta is best known for wild, low-intervention sparkling wines made in Gussago, on the eastern edge of Franciacorta in Lombardy. Febo is his love letter to the Jura — those oxidative, sous voile whites that spend years under a veil of yeast in barrel. He farms his 5.5 hectares biodynamically, and this wine shows exactly where his head is at.
It starts as Chardonnay, but that's almost beside the point. The grapes ferment spontaneously and macerate on their skins for around 100 days, which pulls the wine into orange-wine territory. It then rests in used oak, deliberately left with an air gap so a film of flor forms on the surface, sous voile, for a year — before a final six months settling in concrete. The result is labelled simply Vino da Tavola, because it happily ignores the appellation rulebook.
Expect something intense and a little untamed: bruised orchard fruit, dried herbs, toasted nuts and that savoury, almost saline tang that flor gives a wine. There's grip from the skins and a long, dry, mouth-watering finish. It's delicious now, but it'll deepen over a few years in bottle.
How to Serve
Serve cool but not cold, 10–12°C, in a wide white wine glass. This is a wine that rewards air — pour it early, or decant, and let the oxidative notes stretch out.
Where to Drink It
Planque in Haggerston, a natural-leaning wine bar built for bottles like this. Brat in Shoreditch for its live-fire cooking. Bright in Hackney, always up for something unorthodox in the glass.
Food Pairings
Baked turbot is the classic call, but I'd happily drink it with a roast chicken rubbed in herbs, or a board of hard alpine cheese and cured ham.
