Casa di Baal Marialonga Colli di Salerno 2023

Casa di Baal farms in the Colli di Salerno hills of Campania, working the local Fiano and Falanghina without additives. Marialonga is an orange wine built on extended skin contact: the white grapes are fermented on their skins, which extracts phenolics, colour and tannin and turns the wine deep gold to amber. It then matures six months in clay amphorae, a porous vessel that allows slow, gentle oxygen exchange without imparting oak flavour, softening the tannin while developing nutty, dried-fruit complexity. This natural, low-intervention approach leaves the wine textured and savoury rather than fruity. The colour is burnished amber. The nose shows dried apricot, orange marmalade and beeswax, with dried herbs and a honeyed edge from the Fiano. The palate is dry and structured, the skin tannin firm and the finish long, closing on citrus peel and almond. The grip and oxidative depth ask for food rather than sipping alone. Serve at 12 to 14 degrees in a generous glass, and decant a short while if you want the aromatics to open. It works with roast chicken, slow-cooked pork and hard nutty cheese.