Mae Son "Frizzante" Rosso

Grapes: Indigenous varietals. Pavana, Rosara, Negrara + Turca

Region: Trentino-Alto Adige, Italy

Vintage: 2022

Viticulture: Practicing Organic + Biodynamic

Soils: Calcareous soils with clay

Vinification: Hand-harvested. Fermented in open-top steel vats, 20 day maceration.

Aging: On lees in stainless steel, then 6 additional months in barrel, second fermentation in bottle, aged for 4 months in bottle.

Fining or Filtering: None

Sulfur: None Added

Notes from the Importer: In 2022, third-generation winemaker Matteo Furlani began a new project in addition to his label Cantina Furlani: after years of selling grapes from a 6 hectare plot, he began searching for a way to bottle them for his own wines for the first time — and now is launching a new label, Mae Son, in collaboration with export manager Claudio Coronato and Jenny and Francois Selections. The label is a tribute to the importance of family and family work, as well as the careful craftsmanship of their wines. The name is a playful nod to the beginning of each family member’s name: M for Matteo, A for his wife, Annalisa, and their daughter, Alessia, and E for their son Edoardo. The pronunciation further sheds light on the intimate story behind the label: in English, it’s pronounced “my son,” while in French, it can be read as “maison,” meaning “my home.” 

Matteo didn’t have to study winemaking in a classroom – he learned the art of it with his hands, working his family’s land in the high slopes of the Dolomites alongside his father and grandfather and developing a deep passion and respect for the environment at a young age. 

But the vibrant, curious young winemaker decided to take his knowledge a step further, pursuing a degree in agriculture and oenology from the Agricultural Institute of San Michele all’Adige in order to better care for the 30-year-old vines he now tends on the slopes of Vigolana and overlooking the picturesque city of Trentino. 

With help from his wife, Annalisa, and father, he took over his family’s vineyards in the early 2000s and launched Cantina Furlani, bringing modern technology and a visionary approach to the small cellar which had been shuttered for 20 years. While the land had long been farmed organically, he quickly began devoting himself to biodynamic practices in order to create wines that are joyful, pure expressions of the mountainous terroir, with a focus on spumante wines as well as red and white wines made from predominantly indigenous grapes that he considers “a perfect synthesis between nature, territory, knowledge and great care.”