“Morellina” 2022, a white Ottavianello from Villa Agreste winery in Ostuni, enters the 5StarWines guide www.5starwines.it, an enological selection organized by Veronafiere in collaboration with Assoenologi during Vinitaly. This selection involves two phases: a three-day blind tasting with an international jury of wine professionals, including Daniele Cernilli and Stevie Kim, and the official 5StarWines – the Book guide, which includes wines that have obtained a score of 90 or more and introduces selected wineries to industry experts, international buyers, and wine lovers worldwide, promoting high-quality wines with tasting notes written by the judges and guaranteeing their quality on the global market.
This is an excellent debut for an outsider: among the very few wines without a denomination in the competition, Morellina fully embodies the dual soul of Villa Agreste, which on the one hand focuses on the valorization of traditional and rare varietals in the Ostuni area, and on the other hand works on experimentation and research. This white version of Ottavianello, the main grape variety of the area and the namesake of the DOC, is an absolute novelty and was almost lost in recent years. This experiment seems to have been successful, creating a unique wine in the enological landscape.
This is the first recognition for Morellina, but not the first for the winery: last year, “Lumen in Aria” 2021 Bianco Ostuni DOC won the silver medal at the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, the 4 bunches of the Bibenda Guide, and the honor of representing the Ostuni area in the Rai Uno program “È sempre mezzogiorno” hosted by Antonella Clerici, introduced by Andrea Amadei. Moreover, also last year, the rosé “26 Agosto” won second place in the rosé section of the Due Mari Wine Fest competition, with Prof. Attilio Scienza and Pierpaolo Sirch on the jury.
