Programma Agricolo Dinamo, Cole di Castelluccio, east of Lake Trasimeno, Umbria, and one of the most quietly compelling natural wine projects in central Italy. It’s a collaboration between Danilo Marcucci, who has worked in natural wine for more than four decades, and the Nofrini family, Danilo, Rachele and Simone, who’ve farmed grapes on this hilltop for generations. Vines sit around 600 metres above the lake, and the whole thing feels deliberately outside the current moment.
The idea behind it is lovely. After forty-odd years making wine, Danilo wanted to get back to the wines he made as a kid with his grandfather, the kind of everyday wine that fed farm workers through hard days in the field. Back in 1976, he says, wine was natural and was real daily nourishment, energy for body and mind. That’s the spirit of the whole project.
Even the name has a story. Dinamo comes from Antonio Pacinotti, the Italian physicist who invented the dynamo in 1860, a simple machine that makes clean, renewable energy. Wines as electricity. The labels play with it too, with a range called Nucleo and another called Elettriko.
The wines are all small-lot and low-intervention. Nucleo 1 Rosso blends Gamay del Trasimeno, a local grape that’s actually Grenache, with Sangiovese, juicy, supple and deeply coloured. Nucleo 2 Bianco is built on Trebbiano Toscano, light, fresh, 11 percent, spontaneously fermented in stainless steel. There’s a Nucleo 3 Rosato, a Nucleo X Orange, and an Elettriko Pet-Nat Rosato for the fizzy end of things. Organic, no added sulphites, bottled in one-litre formats that say drink me with friends.
Simple, honest, very Umbrian. Wine with a pulse, made for the table.
Programma Agricolo Dinamo, Cole di Castelluccio, east of Lake Trasimeno, Umbria, and one of the most quietly compelling natural wine projects in central Italy. It’s a collaboration between Danilo Marcucci, who has worked in natural wine for more than four decades, and the Nofrini family, Danilo, Rachele and Simone, who’ve farmed grapes on this hilltop for generations. Vines sit around 600 metres above the lake, and the whole thing feels deliberately outside the current moment.
The idea behind it is lovely. After forty-odd years making wine, Danilo wanted to get back to the wines he made as a kid with his grandfather, the kind of everyday wine that fed farm workers through hard days in the field. Back in 1976, he says, wine was natural and was real daily nourishment, energy for body and mind. That’s the spirit of the whole project.
Even the name has a story. Dinamo comes from Antonio Pacinotti, the Italian physicist who invented the dynamo in 1860, a simple machine that makes clean, renewable energy. Wines as electricity. The labels play with it too, with a range called Nucleo and another called Elettriko.
The wines are all small-lot and low-intervention. Nucleo 1 Rosso blends Gamay del Trasimeno, a local grape that’s actually Grenache, with Sangiovese, juicy, supple and deeply coloured. Nucleo 2 Bianco is built on Trebbiano Toscano, light, fresh, 11 percent, spontaneously fermented in stainless steel. There’s a Nucleo 3 Rosato, a Nucleo X Orange, and an Elettriko Pet-Nat Rosato for the fizzy end of things. Organic, no added sulphites, bottled in one-litre formats that say drink me with friends.
Simple, honest, very Umbrian. Wine with a pulse, made for the table.
