San Giovanni, Teatino, Abruzzo, Italy
Wines by Matteo Cacciagrano
Varietals and key wines include: BRUTAL, Trebbiano, Montepulciano, Passerina
Alchimia Cantina Urbana is the brainchild of Matteo Cacciagrano, an accomplished natural winemaker, with over 15 years of experience.
Just eight miles from the Adriatic coastline, Alchimia’s wines produce intense fruit and floral sensations. Based in the Italian region of Abruzzo, winemaker Matteo produces exceptional wines from grapes harvested at small vineyards scattered between the provinces of Pescara and L'Aquila, including Peligna Valley and Val Pescara.
As a young Italian at the dawn of his winemaking career, Matteo was at the tasting with cult raw winemakers Laureano Serras, Joan Ramon Escoda, and Anthony Tortul, when an unlabelled bottle of natural wine was opened and described as ‘brutal’, colloquial Spanish for amazing. This was scrawled onto the bottle, and the BRUTAL wine movement was born.
This formative experience led Matteo to his own vineyard and create his own Montepulciano BRUTAL wine. All Alchimia wine is bottled without clarification, filtration, and added sulphur and offers modern, no-gimmick wines that emulate the "strong and gentle" soul of Abruzzo.
Matteo is committed to the craft of making natural wine: ‘I've never bought chemicals ... selected yeasts or sulphur, it's more difficult, but in my opinion more beautiful.’
