Pico Orange 2019

The story of La Biancara and its founder Angiolino Maule is inextricably linked to that of the birth (some would say rebirth) of the natural wine movement. After a successful career in the restaurant business Angiolino purchase a few hectares in Veneto’s Gambellara hills, at the feet of the Lessini mountain chain, famed for its rich volcanic soils. Having bottled his first vintage in 1988, Angiolino courageously and firmly decides to swim against the prevailing current of standardized and mass-produced wines and embraces organic agriculture (with several biodynamic practices) and an artisanal, low intervention approach in the vineyard.

In the mid-’90s, along with being one of the founding members of Vinnatur (the world’s largest natural wine association) he’s also one of the maverick vignerons, along with Radikon and Gravner, that single-handedly gives birth to the natural wine movement. And this was a time when he and the others were seen as rather deranged, following their vision and inspiration rather than the market.

Angiolino’s wines are a reflection of his charisma and determination, alchemically fused with the very soul of this terroir. Perhaps most notable are his deeply personal and incredibly nuanced and emotional interpretations of the local Garganega grape, wines of soul, power, and mineral depth.