Ceruja Bianco Uka 2018

Cëruja Bianco from the Albanian winery Uka is a wine of great charm, taking us back to the beginnings of viticulture. It is the fruit of old vines that climb trees following the natural vine instinct of the vitis vinifera, as it did in ancient times, when the plant had not yet been domesticated and grew wild in the woods. A wine of memory and tradition, which the young winemaker Flori Uka, founder of Uka Wines, wanted to make in order to give voice to the history of Albanian viticulture and to make known to the world a heritage of ancient autochthonous vines, capable of giving a fruity and aromatic, intense and rich wine. An unusual taste experience that is absolutely worth discovering.

Uka Wine's Bianco Cëruja was born out of a desire to rediscover the peasant customs of Albania's rural areas, where vines have lived for millennia. In these isolated places, the most famous international grape varieties have never arrived and traditional indigenous varieties have continued to be cultivated in an unspoilt environment characterised by a rich environmental biodiversity. The grapes come from vines that are more than a hundred years old, still cultivated with the "piede franco" system, which find support by climbing trees, in a completely wild way, without human intervention. The grapes are obviously harvested by hand and the bunches undergo a 24-hour cryomaceration before being gently pressed. Fermentation takes place in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks. Before bottling, the wine matures for about a year in steel tanks.

The Cëruja Bianco wine from the Albanian winery Uka is a wine straight from the past, a living testimony to the adaptation of the vine in a wooded environment left in a wild and natural state. The result is absolutely astonishing and teaches us how nature alone is able to regulate itself and give exceptional fruit. It is bright straw yellow in colour and seduces with a bouquet characterised by citrus, lime, grapefruit, green apple, white-fleshed fruit, floral and herbal nuances. Clear and slightly aromatic, it offers an intense and persistent sip that closes on sensations of great freshness.