Italy · Ferrara & Adriatic Plain

Mirco Mariotti

Natural wine estate in Bosco Eliceo, 300 metres from the Adriatic, farming ungrafted century-old vines in coastal sand and making ancestral-method sparkling wine from Fortana, Trebbiano Romagnolo, and Malvasia di Candia Aromatica.

The producer

Mirco Mariotti makes bottle-fermented sparkling wine on the coastal edge of Emilia-Romagna, from vineyards planted roughly 300 metres from the Adriatic Sea. The appellation is Bosco Eliceo DOC, a thin strip of coastal Ferrara province where sandy soils and salt air have kept alive grape varieties found almost nowhere else in Italy. Many vines are over a century old, ungrafted on their own native rootstocks, with roots descending two metres into the aquifer below the sand. Mariotti farms organically and uses propaggine, a vine-layering technique, to renew old vines without losing their genetic material.

Mirco and his sister Barbara took over the family operation in 2009 and redirected it toward local varieties and ancestral-method production. The two anchors of the range are Sèt e Mèz, a bone-dry rosé frizzante from the red Fortana grape, and Smarazen, a cloudy, undisgorged white frizzante blending 70% Trebbiano Romagnolo with 30% Malvasia di Candia Aromatica. Both wines are bottle-fermented without autoclave or disgorgement. Every bottle in the range takes its name from a card game played in local social clubs in Ferrara.

Known for

Ancestral bottle-fermented frizzante from ungrafted century-old coastal vines.

Notable facts

The story

From Laboratory to Label

In 1976, Giorgio Mariotti opened a wine-analysis and consulting laboratory called La Bottega del Vino in Consandolo. For the next decade he worked alongside other growers to push for formal recognition of the coastal strip's distinctive conditions, and in 1989 the Bosco Eliceo DOC was officially granted. Giorgio had helped build the institutional scaffolding of the appellation from the inside, the denomination that would eventually appear on his own family's bottles. When Mirco and Barbara took over in 2009, they did not continue the laboratory. Mirco had trained in enology at the University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza and the family had vineyards; they began farming those vineyards organically and making wine by bottle fermentation from Fortana and Trebbiano, varieties that Giorgio had spent years arguing deserved a protected name. The consulting work stopped. The wine started.

From Laboratory to Label

In 1976, Giorgio Mariotti opened a wine-analysis and consulting laboratory called La Bottega del Vino in Consandolo. For the next decade he worked alongside other growers to push for formal recognition of the coastal strip's distinctive conditions, and in 1989 the Bosco Eliceo DOC was officially granted. Giorgio had helped build the institutional scaffolding of the appellation from the inside, the denomination that would eventually appear on his own family's bottles. When Mirco and Barbara took over in 2009, they did not continue the laboratory. Mirco had trained in enology at the University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza and the family had vineyards; they began farming those vineyards organically and making wine by bottle fermentation from Fortana and Trebbiano, varieties that Giorgio had spent years arguing deserved a protected name. The consulting work stopped. The wine started.

From the atlas

Mirco Mariotti

At A Glance

The Producer

Mirco Mariotti makes natural sparkling wine on the coastal edge of Emilia-Romagna, from vineyards planted roughly 300 metres from the Adriatic Sea. The appellation is Bosco Eliceo DOC, a thin coastal strip in the province of Ferrara where sandy soils and salt air have kept alive grape varieties found almost nowhere else in Italy.

The wines are bottle-fermented from old ungrafted vines and named after card games played in local clubs. Fortana, a red grape tied almost entirely to this coastline, becomes Sèt e Mèz, a bone-dry rosé frizzante. Trebbiano Romagnolo and Malvasia di Candia Aromatica, blended at roughly 70 to 30, become Smarazen, a cloudy, undisgorged white frizzante raised in cement before its second fermentation in bottle.

Mirco studied enology at the University of the Sacred Heart in Piacenza. He and his sister Barbara took over the family operation in 2009 and redirected it entirely toward local varieties, organic farming, and ancestral-method production.

Place

Bosco Eliceo DOC runs along the Adriatic coast south of the Po delta, between Comacchio and Ravenna. It is low, flat, and sandy, and the sea is close enough to smell. The appellation earned DOC status in 1989, driven in part by growers who recognised that the coastal geography preserved conditions found nowhere inland.

The proximity to the sea shapes everything about these wines. The climate is mild and the air saline. The sandy soil drains fast and holds heat through the night. Those same sands push root systems deep, down two metres in some plots, into the aquifer below. The Bosco Eliceo label on a bottle signals that the grapes came from this specific coastal strip, from varieties that survived here precisely because they were never planted widely enough to matter to the phylloxera that swept through European viticulture in the late nineteenth century.

Soil And Site

The vineyards sit in coastal sand. Sandy soil is loose and aerated, and phylloxera, the root-attacking louse that destroyed most of Europe's vines in the nineteenth century, cannot move effectively through it. Vines planted here before the epidemic simply stayed. They were never pulled and regrafted onto resistant American rootstocks because there was no need.

Mariotti's oldest vines are over a century old and grow on their own native rootstocks, piede franco in Italian. Roots descend roughly two metres into the aquifer below the sand, drawing moisture directly from the water table. Old, deep-rooted ungrafted vines produce small crops of concentrated fruit, and their genetic continuity with the original coastal plantings is preserved intact.

Story

The family story in Consandolo begins in 1976, when Giorgio Mariotti opened La Bottega del Vino, a wine-analysis and consulting laboratory. Giorgio spent the following years working to formalise what growers in the area already understood: that the coastal sandy soils and the local varieties were distinct enough to deserve their own appellation. The Bosco Eliceo DOC was obtained in 1989, with Giorgio among those who pushed for it.

Georgio's children Mirco and Barbara took over in 2009. Mirco had trained as an enologist; Barbara joined him in running operations. The direction they chose was not a continuation of the laboratory model. They closed the distance between the consulting work and the wine itself, farming the family's own vineyards organically and making wine by bottle fermentation rather than by autoclave. The pivot from analysis to production, from Charmat to ancestral method, took the Mariotti name from the back-room infrastructure of the Bosco Eliceo appellation to its front label.

Vineyards And Cellar

The vineyards are farmed organically. For vine renewal, Mariotti uses propaggine, a layering technique in which a living cane from an existing vine is buried in the soil and encouraged to root. The new vine carries the genetic material of the parent rather than coming from a selected nursery clone. On a site with ungrafted centenarian vines, propaggine means the genetic continuity of the original coastal plantings moves forward plant by plant.

In the cellar, Smarazen is raised in cement tanks before undergoing a second fermentation in bottle for around 60 days. The wine is not disgorged. Yeast sediment stays in the bottle, giving the wine its cloudy appearance and a bready, autolytic quality alongside the dry herbaceous aromatics from the Malvasia. Sèt e Mèz follows the same bottle-fermentation path from Fortana. Neither wine goes near an autoclave.

Wines

The range at Mariotti covers seven bottles: Sèt e Mèz, Surlìe, Smarazen, Uva d'Oro, Centro, Lè Turnè, and Stella Maris. Every name comes from a card game played in the Ferrara area. The naming connects the wines to local social life rather than to appellations or vineyards.

Sèt e Mèz is the red wine in the range, made from Fortana as a dry rosé frizzante. Fortana is a thin-skinned red grape with tart cherry and red plum on the nose, a light copper-pink colour, and a palate that is dry, saline, and fresh, with light tannin from the grape skin contact during fermentation.

Smarazen is the white frizzante, blending 70% Trebbiano Romagnolo with 30% Malvasia di Candia Aromatica. The Malvasia contributes aromatic weight and a faintly floral herbaceous quality; the Trebbiano brings body and acidity. After cement ageing and 60 days of bottle fermentation, the wine is undisgorged: it pours slightly cloudy, carries bread-crust and yeast alongside the fruit, and finishes dry at around 11.5 to 12% alcohol depending on vintage.

The rest of the range, including Surlìe, Uva d'Oro, Centro, Lè Turnè, and Stella Maris, follows the same combination of coastal variety, organic farming, and bottle fermentation.

In The Glass

Sèt e Mèz opens with tart red fruit and a faint wild strawberry note, with a mineral salinity underneath that recalls the coastal site rather than any cellar addition. In the mouth it is dry and lightly fizzing, with fresh acidity, a soft grip from the Fortana tannin, and a clean finish that does not linger past its welcome. The fizz is gentle, mousse-like rather than aggressive, a product of bottle fermentation rather than forced carbonation.

Smarazen is different in register. The nose is aromatic and herbal, with chamomile and dried flowers from the Malvasia alongside a yeasty, bread-crust note from the months of lees contact in bottle. In the mouth it is dry throughout, with a low-level textural cloudiness from the undisgorged sediment, a long autolytic mid-palate, and a saline mineral finish. The acidity from Trebbiano keeps the wine from feeling heavy despite the lees character.

A Bottle To Understand It

Start with Sèt e Mèz. It is made from Fortana, a red grape grown almost exclusively in Bosco Eliceo and almost nowhere else in Italy. Mariotti ferments it as a rosé frizzante in bottle, without an autoclave, so the fizz is fine and the palate is dry from start to finish. Tart cherry, a saline mineral edge, fresh acidity, and the lightest grip of tannin: the wine is small in alcohol, honest about its origins, and impossible to confuse with anything made inland. One glass explains the coastal site, the local grape, and the ancestral method all at once.

Anecdote

In 1976, Giorgio Mariotti opened a wine-analysis and consulting laboratory called La Bottega del Vino in Consandolo. For the next decade he worked alongside other growers in the area to push for formal recognition of the coastal strip's distinctive conditions, and in 1989 the Bosco Eliceo DOC was officially granted. Giorgio had helped build the institutional scaffolding of the appellation from the inside, the denomination that would eventually appear on his own family's bottles. When Mirco and Barbara took over in 2009, they did not continue the laboratory. Mirco had trained in enology and the family had vineyards; they began farming those vineyards organically and making wine by bottle fermentation from Fortana and Trebbiano, varieties that Giorgio had spent years arguing deserved a protected name. The consulting work stopped. The wine started.

Final Word

Mirco Mariotti makes frizzante from ungrafted centenarian vines on sand 300 metres from the Adriatic, using bottle fermentation and organic farming, from varieties that exist in quantity almost nowhere else. Bosco Eliceo is not a name most wine buyers know. After one bottle of Sèt e Mèz, they tend to remember it.

Sources

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