2022 Vino Rosato “Passatella”
Steiger-Kalena
Giulio and Margarita Steiger are true believers in the potential of Molise, Italy’s second-smallest region. Giulio is a native of the area, and in 2014 he and Margarita moved from Paris to the comune of Casacalenda, building their winery from scratch and planting twelve hectares of vineyards—now certified organic—to the region’s traditional red varieties. Their rosé has a sun-baked quality, with dusty red fruit, a fair bit of grip, and a distinct herbal note. Mostly Montepulciano with dashes of Aglianico and Tintilia, this is a meal-time rosé for slaking thirst and washing down a brimming bowl of herby cicerchie (pea soup) or a savory hunk of caciocavallo, a traditional cheese from the Apennine Mountains. Invite some friends over for a spirited game of passatella, a centuries-old card game still played in Molise. After all, the more the merrier!
—Dustin Soiseth
| Wine Type: | Rosé |
| Vintage: | 2022 |
| Bottle Size: | 750mL |
| Blend: | 85% Montepulciano, 10% Aglianico, 10% Tintilia |
| Country: | Italy |
| Region: | Molise |
| Producer: | Steiger-Kalena |
| Winemaker: | Giulio Steiger |
| Vineyard: | Planted in 2016, 12 ha total |
| Soil: | Clay, limestone |
| Aging: | Ages about 8-9 months in large concrete casks |
| Farming: | Organic (certified) |
| Alcohol: | 14.5% |
More from this Producer or Region
About The Producer
Steiger-Kalena
After years living abroad, Giulio Steiger and his wife Margarita settled in Casacalenda, a commune situated roughly halfway between the capital city of Campobasso and the Adriatic coast, determined to create high-quality wines in Giulio’s native land. From 2015 to 2018, they planted twelve hectares of the region’s typical grape varieties—Montepulciano, Aglianico, and the native Tintilia—on west-facing slopes of limestone, clay, and sand. With a climate influenced by both the Apennines and the sea, along with the moderating effect of the nearby Lake Guardialfiera, this picturesque area has all the makings of a great wine terroir.
Giulio eschews chemical treatments in his vines, leaving a natural cover crop and enriching the soils with his own grape pomace and manure from their farm animals. Fermentations occur spontaneously without temperature control, and the wines are aged in concrete and neutral wood, where they rest until the unfiltered bottling. Soulful delights with novel flavors and textures from a previously unheralded land, the first releases from this ambitious young couple make a very strong case for Italy’s second-smallest region. We are thrilled to welcome Steiger-Kalena as the first-ever grower from Molise in the KLWM family.
About The Region
Molise
Italy’s second-smallest region by surface area and population, Molise is a mountainous enclave tucked along the Adriatic Sea between Abruzzo to the north and Puglia to the south. Its western side, bordering Campania, consists of Apennine peaks that gradually descend toward the coastline. With a range of climate zones from Mediterranean along the Adriatic to continental in the higher inland areas, with temperate foothills in between, there is great potential for fine wine production in Molise.
While winemaking here predates the Roman Empire, the region’s isolation and mountainous nature has prevented it from achieving the productivity or commercial success of some of its neighbors. The first commercial bottlings date back to the 1970s near the coast, and in the 1990s more independent producers began popping up, but without really focusing on quality. Molise still has a high proportion of home winemakers who vinify for familial consumption relative to other regions, although in recent years some newer producers have made a concerted effort to create serious wine on a commercial scale. Steiger-Kalena, the first and only Molise producer to grace KLWM shelves, is an exciting example of this shift toward quality, and a delightful demonstration of what is capable in this secluded region.
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Where the newsletter started
Where the newsletter started
Every three or four months I would send my clients a cheaply made list of my inventory, but it began to dawn on me that business did not pick up afterwards. It occurred to me that my clientele might not know what Château Grillet is, either. One month in 1974 I had an especially esoteric collection of wines arriving, so I decided to put a short explanation about each wine into my price list, to try and let my clients know what to expect when they uncorked a bottle. The day after I mailed that brochure, people showed up at the shop, and that is how these little propaganda pieces for fine wine were born.—Kermit Lynch