AB Ansonica Bucce 2008: a complex Tuscan white

I missed Gianpaolo Paglia's Poggio Argentiera winemaker's dinner at a local Italian restaurant Rosemarino in Bristol the other week but we caught up with one of his wines on Thursday night: a complex, earthy white from the Maremma region of Tuscany called Ansonica Bucce.

Ansonica is apparently the same variety as Inzolia and, according to Gianpaolo, derived from the Greek Roditis. It's fermented (I think, though my Italian is pretty rudimentary) on the skins "not filtered, not manufactured, just made" as the back label puts it. "How wine was once upon a time." It's aged for a year in cement and oak vats so has a slightly oxidative character but isn't an orange wine.

At first I found it a touch austere (it was served too cold) but it opened up in the glass and really came into its own with food, particularly my spinach, walnut and fontina lasagne which also had a slightly bitter edge. (Interestingly my husband says it was more aromatic when he tasted it at the dinner: Thursday was a root day.)

You can buy it from R.S.Wines in Bristol for £9.99 + VAT.