Santa Madonna 2020 12%

Stonefruit – Spice – Almond Husband and wife team Evita and Stefano Eboli are proof that it’s never too late to give up your day job and become a winemaker. Both insurance professionals, the couple uprooted from Rome and moved to the ancient winegrowing region of Orvieto in 2018 after convincing one of Italy’s leading natural winemakers Danilo Marcucci to show them his ways. At just half a hectare, Cantina Fermento is tiny. Its 60-year-old vines hug a hill spanning altitudes of 300 to 500 meters, surrounded by fruit and olive trees, and thick woodland. The wine cellar is an original Etruscan cave on a cobbled lane, and its here – guided by Danilo – that Evita and Stefano make just three wines, with nothing added and nothing taken away: one sparkling, one red and this, their orange. It’s dry with notes of ripe stone fruit, peach pie, spices and almond, with a crisp finish. Grapes: Procanico, Verdello, Drupeggio, Malvasia, Grechetto