ilBioSelvatico is a young winery in Civitella in Val di Chiana, near Arezzo.  Owner Filippo Volpi was born and bred in the area and comes from a family of restauranteurs.  He caught the food and wine bug early on.  As a teenager in the 1980s, he had already completed his sommelier course and had done formative stages cooking in kitchens in Italy and France.  His career brought him to cook at some of the most important restaurants of the era-- Vissani (Gianfranco Vissani), Trigabolo di Argenta (Igles Corelli and others), Pierre Gagnard, L’Arpege (Alain Passard).  Along the way, he never lost track of wine.  The front of house/back of house duality, and the division of attention between Italy and France, have served him well.   Today he is considered one of Italy’s preeminent connoisseurs of Burgundy.

Filippo’s friends Federico Staderini and Stefano Amerighi encouraged him to stop selling grapes from his 4.2-hectare Sangiovese vineyard, which he first rented from and eventually bought from his father.  The vineyard has been farmed organically since the late 1990s and these days is farmed biodynamically (with no desire for certification).   It’s a fresh, windy site, with sandy clay topsoils. A gentle incline leads to the surrounding woods, a bit like in the Côte d’Or.   On paper, it’s rather homogenous, with 15-30-year-old vines, all planted to one selection of Sangiovese.  In practice, however, Filippo discovered lots of variation and nuance.  He insists that it is not a “grand terroir,” but it is an intact ecosystem, capable of creating something highly original, provided he has the right sensibility.

For ilBioSelvatico, Filippo is inspired by early-1950s Burgundy “à l’ancienne,” both in the vineyard and cellar.  He does a preliminary pruning selection in January/February, then a final one under a favorable moon in March, to push budbreak past the threat of frosts.  He doesn’t do green harvest, nor does he top the vines, preferring to eventually roll and tie the highest canes together.  Treatments are infrequent and limited to copper/sulfur, stinging nettles, algae, and citrus zest extracts.  Once veraison begins he will hardly step in the vineyard until the first harvest.    Harvest is protracted over a month, with 25 to 30 separate pickings happening from early Septemeber to mid-October.  No analysis is done, but Filippo and his four-person crew look for the “best of the best” by taste on any given harvest day.  They’ll only harvest in the morning, for four hours max, in order to bring in around 5,000 kg of grapes at a time.

In the cellar, much as it would have been in 1950s Burgundy, there is no crusher or destemmer or temperature control.  All grapes are kept 100% whole cluster, vinified in open-top 500L tonneaux.  A little more than half of the grapes are foot-tread and the rest of the bunches are left untouched in infusion.  Once separated from the skins, the wines begin their aging in these same tonneaux before being moved to concrete vats.   It’s a “gourmet cuisine” approach that took Filippo some time, experience, and courage to develop;  he did not release his first three vintages, 2015, 2016, and 2017.   2018 was his commercial debut.

Iuli is located in the far north of the Monferrato, in the town of Montaldo di Cerrina.  Once a vibrant little town of 450+ souls, today there are only 92.  It is set among the last band of dramatic hills and valleys before descending into the rich flatlands of the Po river valley, with the Alps as a backdrop on a clear day. If you're headed to Montaldo, chances are it is to see Fabrizio Iuli.  His family figures prominently and colorfully in the town's history.  In the 1920s, his grandfather, Gioacchino Natale Iuli, like many young men from the countryside, was courted by a factory job in Lombardia.  In a twist of fate, Gioacchino heard that a burgeoning marching band had been formed in Montaldo, so he packed his bags and headed back to become its clarinetist and to start a family. The first vines were planted around 1930.  Fabrizio's grandmother, Ernestina, established a little osteria in their living room, a place with warm food and warm hospitality that became a gathering point for the village. There was much conviviality and Iuli Barbera flowing.  Though no longer an official restaurant, the feeling continues to this day with Fabrizio and his wife, Summer Wolff, cooking up a storm and popping bottles, their young boys staying up later than most American kids their age, taking it all in.  It is a place that sucks you in, where time seems to stand still, if only temporarily.   

Today, Fabrizio is the only winegrower in the town. His first commerical vintage was 1998, with his Barbera called Rossore.  The grapes found in his vineyards are Baratuciat (a nearly-extinct white variety from the Val di Susa), Slarina (a red Monferrato variety also almost lost), Grignolino, Nebbiolo, Pinot Nero, and, of course, Barbera. There are 35 contiguous hectares of land in one valley, with 16 hectares planted to vine. Certified organic, the land has never seen any chemicals. Despite being ridiculed by neighbors, Fabrizio's grandfather and father never succumbed to pressure to buy products they felt were meant to fix something that wasn't broken.  The isolation of the place suits Fabrizio's desire to instigate and protect biodiversity.  The thick surrounding woods keep the prospect of a monoculture at bay.  They contain many white truffles in the season; they also house many wild boar, who can and do devour a crop of grapes. Some end up at Cascina Iuli in the form of 'Barbera Pig' stew. 

The wines are Piedmontese to the core, ultra-reflective of the poor, but limestone-rich soils and northernly climate with cool nights. Each wine has a reason for being; each wine has extreme drinkability without losing seriousness or intrigue. They are concentrated in their fruit, but also have a lightness and florality that feel very "Iuli."  In the cellar, Iuli's trajectory over the years has become increasingly non-interventionist. Fermentations are carried out spontaneously, with a little so2 added after malolactic fermentations. The tradition in the area is to use concrete tank and large oak cask.  Fabrizio wouldn't dream of deviating from that lineage.  He adores, collects, and restores small concrete vessels. There's a room in the cellar in which they're lined up like little misfit robots waiting to be deployed.  The wines are aged slowly and statically, bottled unfined and unfiltered, when taste and an auspicious moon deem they're ready.

Jon Langley and Lucky Preksto, longtime New York City bartenders, met in 2009 and have been collaborators ever since. In 2020 they began developing spirits recipes in Jon’s kitchen. Ever optimistic, they formed January Spirits that same year. In 2022, they scaled up these recipes and teamed with Matchbook Distilling, located in the North Fork of Long Island, to bring their vision to life.

Joining forces with Lucky’s wife, Diana Lang, on branding, and Jon’s partner, Amanda Eli, on operations, they came to market in New York in the spring of 2023. They decided to launch with three products. Amaro and genepy, legendary digestifs; two sides of a coin, one bitter, rooty, the other herbal, ineffable. The five-flower gin, particular to January Spirits, accents the earthy quality of flowers. It’s not an obvious gin, only delicious.

Taken on their own, these styles are aromatic and nuanced; in cocktails, near indefinable.

"We make botanical spirits. We’re drawn to the traditional French and Italian styles of drinks that haven’t until recently had a bright light shone upon them. We love them on their own, they stand up. They’re also often the secret ingredient that make a cocktail sing. Versatile spirits. Serious spirits, often pondered over, savored, and deeply regarded. We take them seriously. But we feel drinking also, at its heart, ought to be fun. It makes you feel good, after all–and here’s to feeling good all the time."

Bowler is proud to welcome January Spirits to the portfolio!

For more information on ​Jean-Christophe Jezequel, please visit Selection Massale.

Available in California.