Leita

With Azienda Agricola D’Arcy, Tom Nicholson-Myers has long since established himself as one of the most exciting producers in Piedmont. The wines have received widespread acclaim, and demand has grown accordingly. The recurring challenge with D’Arcy is therefore also the most obvious one: there is simply never enough wine.

It is therefore a great privilege for us to introduce the first wine from Leita, Tom’s new project, which will run alongside D’Arcy going forward. The first release is a 2021 Barolo, released exclusively on the Danish market – and at an unusually sympathetic price.

Leita springs from the same curiosity that has always driven Tom: a desire to experiment, to challenge both established conventions and his own methods, and to deepen his understanding of the potential of each individual grape variety. The project is deliberately conceived as a freer and more creative space, where Tom can test ideas and explore new avenues. The meticulousness and attention to detail remain the same as ever, but the ambition is neither to make D’Arcy wines nor to create a second wine for D’Arcy.

The first release from Leita almost seems too good to be true: a Barolo from the highly acclaimed 2021 vintage, where, despite low yields and a new project eager to make its way into the world, Tom chose to give the wine all the time it needed. In the cellar, the grapes were divided into three equal parts and treated differently: one third was fermented as whole bunches, one third was destemmed without crushing the grapes, while for the final third only the central part of the stem was removed. Fermentation was slow and cool, with three weeks on the skins, after which the wine spent two years undisturbed in botti, without a single racking.

From the outset, this was a wine that showed patience would be crucial. The three different fermentations developed in markedly different directions and gave Tom precisely the insight into Nebbiolo’s idiosyncrasies that he was looking for. The blending of the three has resulted in something quite special: a wine that remains true to its origin and appellation while at the same time bearing the clear imprint of Tom’s elegant touch. As we write, the wine is beautifully open in the glass, with plenty of refined Nebbiolo aromatics and impressively fine tannins.