2022 La Miraja Grignolino D'Asti, Piedmont, Italy

100% Grignolino Nestled within the original castle of Castagnole Monferrato, La Miraja was constructed as an armory in the 11th century, only to be retrofitted as a cellar in the 1400s. La Miraja (pronounced “me-rye-uh”) is tiny by any measure, comprising less than 4 hectares under vine. It is here that Eugenio, seventh genration winemaker, devotes his life’s work to producing roughly 2,500 transcendent cases of wine each year. Harnessing his years of working in wineries and distilleries across Italy, he imbues his wines with a haunting purity and a simple elegance. Grignolino was the favored red wine of the Savoy aristocracy in the thirteenth century, prized for its light color and elegant mouthfeel. These bottles often matched or exceeded the price of Barolo bottlings. The grape name likely derived from the word “grigné,” which is the local dialect for the pips, or grape seeds. Grignolino is rare among its fellow wine grape cultivars in that it has multiple pips per berry and well as