Bisson Golfo del Tigullio Ciliegiolo Rosato

The Man... For 30 years Pierluigi Lugano has been a champion of Ligurian wine. His home region needed one. He has almost single-handedly resuscitated the reputation of viticulture surrounding Genoa. As a major industrial center and Italy’s busiest important port, Genoa has swallowed farmland and steadily moved this area’s economy away from agriculture for generations. In the 1970’s Lugano saw the writing on the wall for the indigenous grapes of his homeland. He ambitiously began buying fruit, and then land planted to Ciliegiolo, Bianchetta Genovese and others. Pierluigi also established a retail store to sell his wines. He is a man of obvious energy.

The Land... Lugano’s home town of Chiavari is north of the Cinque Terre, a beautiful stretch of Italy’s western coast that attracts a tourist army every summer. Farming on the rocky the Gulf of Tigullio requires harvesting the scant stands of vine that cling to every possible parcel of flat land not covered by lemon trees or houses. The Mare Ligure is bordered my cliffs, winding roads and terrifying one-lane tunnels. Get stuck behind a Fiat Panda and you’ll have hours to stare out at the turquoise waters and spindly beaches that stretch south to Tuscany. Fishing and farming may have largely gone away, replaced by international transportation and tourist industry jobs, but enough vestiges of the former economy remain to charm vacationers.

The Wine... This dark and juicy rose is made from the Ciliegiolo grape, an uncommon variety grown mostly in Liguria and Tuscany. Lugano cultivates his vines in two vineyard sites in the hills above Chiavari. The wine has a nice subtle cherry aroma, giving credibility to the name of the grape variety, for ciliegila is cherry in Italian.