Meet our winemakers...
Vini e Distillati Delea Angelo
Delea is a wine family known throughout Switzerland and in Italy, not just for the wines they produce and their distilled spirits, but because, like a number of canton Ticino wineries, they sell other producers’ fine wines, and they export (mainly to Italy) and import. The company is thus relatively large by Swiss wine standards, but their own high quality winemaking remains very much a family business. Sparkling wines are a particular specialty here.
The Winery
Angelo Delea founded the company in 1983, son David joined him in 1988 and son Cesare soon after. Today Angelo, in his 70’s, remains actively involved. David handles marketing – he speaks four languages and spends 3-4 months a year on the road – and works closely with their oenologist, as well as with the small local growers whose grapes they buy. Cesare works with David on logistics, and he is the numbers man who handles accounting and online sales. “We get along really well, with lots of good humour,” says David, of the family who all live close to the winery in Losone, and who still share the daily apero drink before dinner, and often dinner.
The Terroir of delea’s Vineyards
The family owns 20 hectares of vines in the Sopraceneri mid-north region of Ticino, Switzerland’s luscious Italian-speaking region. The vines are spread out over a small area that fans out from Losone. It’s an area where forests hover at the edge of cultivated fields and vineyards, with spectacular waterfalls, good rainfall and resulting rich soil. Most of these grapes – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Merlot – are used in the family’s several sparkling wines. Most of the rest of their production comes from grapes grown locally; they work closely with and buy in grapes from some 200 small growers. Total production is 600,000 bottles a year.
Our Hand-Selected Wines
from
delea's Vineyard
Charme Brut Sparkling Wine
Wine Profile
A sparkling wine from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Merlot. A delicate bouquet with a hint of fruity and fragrant aromas. Fine, elegant with a typical taste, dry and sapid, slightly aromatic with a fine and persistent ‘perlage’ (bubbles).
Cultivation and vinification
A sparkling wine that has always been vinified using the long Charmat method, a blend aged over the years. Specific clonal varieties planted in appropriate soils, in the vineyards of Sopraceneri. The result is an innovative cuvée, the fruit of experience acquired over the years. An eclectic and multifaceted sparkling wine entirely conceived by Vini Delea.
Food pairings
Good as an appetizer, with fried lake fish, with zucchinis and eggplants.
Carato Riserva Merlot
Wine Profile
The name “carata” is a play on words, as in carat for diamonds and gold, but it’s also an Italian word for barrels. Fine wine with a great structure that fully reflects its terroir. The character is very intense, spicy and elegant with very fine aromas. Intense ruby red color with purple highlights. In mouth: complex, with deep and sweet notes at first, initially cassis and blackberry and then threads of leather, light tobacco, eucalyptus, tea leaves and balsamic scents emerge. In the mouth it is full, bold, voluminous, long and persistent, and at the same time elegant and spicy with a great structure. Suitable for aging.
Cultivation and vinification
Carato Riserva is produced from the best selected Merlot vines over 40 years old. The grapes are cultivated in vineyards on the hills around Locarno, where they are exposed to good sunlight during the day, with fresh night breezes,giving them the ideal conditions to mature perfectly.
The wine rests for two years in new French oak barrels, called in Italian “carati”.
Food pairings
Meat and game, especially beef filets with Bordeaux or Carato Riserva wine sauce.
