Ageno 2022

Ageno is La Stoppa's landmark orange wine — made from Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, Ortrugo, and Trebbiano grown on Elena Pantaleoni's 50-hectare estate in the Colli Piacentini hills of northwest Emilia-Romagna, Italy. Four months of skin maceration. A year in barrel. Two years in bottle before release. A serious orange wine for serious orange wine lovers — and the 2022 is perhaps the best vintage yet.

What is Ageno by La Stoppa — and what makes 2022 special?

La Stoppa was founded in the late 19th century by a lawyer named Gian Marco Ageno — the wine carries his name. Today the estate is run by Elena Pantaleoni, who took it over in 1991, and head winemaker Giulio Armani. They farm their Emilia-Romagna estate without chemical input, using native yeasts and making no additions to the wine. Nothing leaves the estate early.

The grapes are co-harvested and destemmed, fermented with native yeasts in tank with around four months of skin contact, then spend a year in barrel and at least two years in bottle. Ageno typically carries the complexity — and occasional volatile acidity — of a wine that has been through a great deal. The 2022 is different.

The 2022 vintage is noticeably softer than previous releases. The volatile acidity that can characterise Ageno in warmer years is so well-integrated here that only the most discerning palate will even sense it — and most won't. Expect peppermint, tangerine, and rosemary on the nose, evolving into greater complexity and a subtle nuttiness as the glass opens. Really incredible, and genuinely our favourite recent vintage.

Serve at room temperature and give it time in the glass — this wine opens and evolves considerably. The natural partner for aged hard cheese, game, roast pork with herbs, or a long and unhurried antipasto spread.