Fabio Gea DNAss 2024

Grape: Nebbiolo
Vintage: 2024
Type: Red

The final installment in Fabio Gea's cheeky, rear-end-themed series, DNAss flips the conventional Nebbiolo script entirely on its head—starting with its name, which spells "SAND" backward in honor of the sandy, marl-rich soils of Bricco di Neive. Grown organically on a tiny, steep plot, the destemmed grapes undergo a spontaneous two-to-three-week maceration. But the true magic lies in the aging process: Gea places the young wine into his custom-crafted porcelain and stoneware amphorae and completely submerges them in a pool of water, a method he describes as "water and wine making love." This hyper-experimental, underwater environment prevents any outside atmospheric interference, yielding a beautifully wild, zero-zero bottling with zero added sulfur.

In the glass, it glows a translucent, bright ruby red with shimmering magenta highlights. The aromatics are intensely lifted and unpredictable, bursting with wild cranberry, raspberry, dried rose petals, and a savory layer of damp forest clay and white pepper. On the palate, a "crystalline" streak of energetic, mountain acidity carries the crunchy red fruits effortlessly across the tongue. While the variety’s naturally firm, fine-grained tannins are present, the unique underwater porcelain aging rounds out the mid-palate, giving it a remarkably fluid, plush texture. The finish is remarkably persistent and bone-dry, leaving behind a signature trail of savory herbs, crushed stone, and a distinct, ocean-like saline freshness.