21/06/2024
From an idea 💡to a “first” in the realm of Ticino wines🍷
It’s 2015 and Angelo Delea, founder of the renowned Vini e Distillati Delea in Losone, has an idea: to
create a unique wine, a Ticinese Merlot made exclusively from a white grape.
The journey, fraught with difficulties, began when he acquired around a hundred rootstocks from a French
experimental research centre that had made a grape variety by crossing F***e Blanche and Merlot Noir. The
first vineyard was planted on a hillside in Quartino facing Lake Maggiore.
“I chose the name Blank Angel” to emphasise the unique nature of this wine and accentuate both the word
“Blank” and my own name’, remarks Angelo Delea.
The wine, straw-yellow in colour, reveals a lightly aromatic bouquet and a very refined and elegant
character, underpinned by a lively acidity, with white flower and wild fennel aromas well- harmonised after
refinement oak casks. It was a work of art in terms of viticulture and oenology and the fruit of research and
perseverance, which challenged traditional expectations in a quest to create something out-of-the ordinary
which would offer an exceptional tasting experience.
Following a number of microvinification experiments, the first real harvest in 2022 produced the first 3000
bottles. “When, together with our oenologist Giuseppe, we tasted Blank Angel for the first time we were
surprised and deeply moved by what we had achieved. With the wine’s evolution of a year in the barrel, we
were rewarded and delighted by the emergence of surprising scents and aromas. So we invite you to taste
this nectar and experience this new wine from our cellar, the fruits of research, innovation and a great
dedication to wine”.
Find the full article in the latest edition of Ascona Magazine 2024 📚