Arshura Valter Mattoni. A rock in liquid form (1)

Valter Mattoni is a “do-it-yourself” wine producer who is passionately dedicated to his vineyard.

There used to be Piceni Invisibili, a promotional association uniting a good number of the best, small Piceno wine producers. This was at the beginning of the new millennium and among its members were estates like Caniette, Maria Pia Castelli, Aurora and Ciù Ciù, which at the time produced only a few thousands bottles. The association’s guiding light in regard to production and, above all, promotion was Marco Casolanetti of Oasi degli Angeli, which produces the super-divisive wine Kurni.

From an operative point of view the association was short-lived because it failed to fit into the growing surge of natural wines towards the end of the millennium’s first decade and the beginning of the second.  And this despite the fact that its members had similar backgrounds and their wines could have easily coexisted. The association’s members split up between Cerea, Villa Favorita, Vini Veri & Co. But the seed had been planted and if Piceno wines have seen an impressive leap in quality over the past 20 years, a good part of the credit goes to those involved in that association. And while the association may no longer exist today, its members who created it have not back-tracked on their ambitions, quite the contrary.

Valter Mattoni was one of them, on the same level as Marco Casolanetti, and in the group he stood out for being super passionate about wine, a passion he brought with him to the vineyard. And with his long, blond hair and physique of someone used to hard word, Valter welcomes you with the spontaneity of an old friend.

“Thirty years ago I used to drink Valentini’s Montepulciano with a plate of cold cuts at the Osteria dell’Arancio in Grottammare. Back then it did not cost that much and who knows how many bottles I drank,” Valter “The Rock” tells me. His nickname was given to him by his friends in reference to his physique and, some say, capacity to drink wine. At his small winery in Castorano, in the heart of the Piceno winemaking district and a stone’s throw from Offida, every year Valter seems to be able to raise the quality bar of his wines, which unfortunately he makes in very limited quantity.

He is helped in the winery by Marco Casolanetti who as a consultant pays particular attention to the purity of the bouquet, to avoid the risk of oxidation common to Montepulciano, and the ripeness of the grapes. Valter, in fact, never lets his grapes become overripe with the result that his reds never have any sugar residue. They do, however, macerate for a long time, up to as much as 25 days.

Valter has vast experience in the vineyard where he does everything himself: “Because I was born in the vineyard and we have always made wine at our house, as well as olive oil and pork products. There is an architect in Milan who only eats our pork meats and every year he comes down here to buy it”.

The estate has a few small parcels of vineyards, all in Castorano, planted with some Sangiovese, a little Grenache and a lot of Trebbiano and Montepulciano. The vines are all old and planted with a low density per hectare, as was the custom in the area in the early 1990s. The soil is quite sandy and grassy and the yield is around 2,500-3,000kg per hectare.

DoctorWine: The yield per hectare is that of a Burgundy Grand Cru.

Valter Mattoni: Really? You know, I don’t pay much attention to certain things anymore. What interests me is making things work in the winery: when you work with such reduced quantity you limit the variables of a harvest to a minimum. Every year I am able to bring some very lovely grapes to the winery, even if I have to work my ass off.

DW: What is Arshura?

VM: It is my single-grape Montepulciano wine. As I said before, I only bring the best grapes into my winery and then when the wine matures (in used barriques), Marco Casolanetti and I decide the exact blend to give Arshura.

DW: A suggestive name.

VM: In Ascoli dialect arshura means a burning or scorching sensation and can be applied to many things. It can be the desire of someone born in the country with no one around to help them and so must do everything themselves. It can be a bonfire of wine, of life, of women…

(Tomorrow we will publish the second part of our interview with Valter Mattoni together with a vertical tasting of Arshura).

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