Adrien Stevens Pensieri senza Pensatore Malcantone, Ticino – 2024

100% Merlot from old vines planted next to the winery in the wild hills of Malcantone in Ticino. This is a true Alpine Merlot, with lovely freshness and finesse. It is medium bodied with vibrant red fruit flavours, aromatic herbs and very subtle oaky vanillins. One of the best Ticino Merlots I have tasted! Only 50 cases were produced.

Adrien Stevens is a rising star on the Ticino wine scene who was awarded “Swiss wine rookie of the year for 2024” by Gault Millau. He is 40 years old and has had fantastic previous winemaking experience at Domaine Nicolas Joly in the Loire Valley, and more recently with Christian Zündel in Ticino. Perhaps no surprise then that he produces his wines biodynamically and vinifies them with as little intervention as possible.

His recently-purchased winery sits on top of a sunny hill in Monteggio, Malcantone, where his fabulous Pensieri Senza Pensatore Merlot is grown on old vines planted between 1960-1990. Important to the style of this wine is the long, slow (60 day) maceration and fermentation he gives his Merlot grapes, without crushing them first. This gives maximum purity and depth of flavour without releasing any bitter tannins into the wine. The wine was then matured for 14 months in Burgundy barrels, then bottled with no filtration and very little SO².