Description
Claudio Mariotto’s family winery was founded in the early 1920s by his great-grandfather Bepi and has remained a multigenerational estate in the Tortona hills of Piedmont, now run by Claudio with his partner Rossana, his brother Marco, and his mother Piera. The estate spans about 700 hectares overall, with roughly 50 hectares under vine in Tortona and Sarezzano, where the family works organically and biodynamically with native grapes such as Timorasso, Barbera, Freisa, and Croatina. While the winery honors its long family tradition, Claudio’s most important contribution has been championing Timorasso, a once-nearly-forgotten Piedmontese white grape that he helped bring back into prominence through careful vineyard work and focused winemaking.
Timorasso is a rare native white grape from Piedmont’s Colli Tortonesi, where it was once nearly lost before a small group of producers helped bring it back into importance. Unlike many lighter Piedmont whites, it is prized for its firm acidity, mineral depth, textural richness, and ability to age, qualities that have earned it a reputation as one of the region’s most distinctive white grapes. Its rise from near extinction to renewed acclaim has made it especially associated with the name Derthona and with producers, like Claudio Mariotto who champion its potential for serious, terroir-driven wines.
The Piccolo Derthona is 100% Timorasso grown on clay-limestone soils. In the cellar, the fruit was gently and slowly pressed, then allowed to undergo spontaneous fermentation under temperature control then aged for four months on the fine lees in stainless steel tanks with a light bâtonnage regimen. The wine shows a bright straw-yellow hue and offers scents of ripe summer fruit, white flowers, honeycomb and a wet, stony mineral edge. The palate shows remarkable texture with fresh flavors of pineapple, yellow stone fruit and quince finishing fresh and minerally with a hint of white mushroom. It serves as an inviting introduction to the depth and structure that define Timorasso.
