Romagna Brisighella Bianco DOC
Sometimes the best stories begin with coincidences that feel gently guided by an invisible thread. Bessagalena is one of those stories: a tangle of chance encounters, private obsessions, and old legends, all blended together like the two grapes that shape this wine.
The Story
It started with Romagnolo dialect, where bessagalena describes the curious gait of a turtle, moving a little like a snake (bessa) and a little like a hen (galena). It felt like the right name for a wine born from two grapes with very different tempers: Trebbiano, more supple and restless, and Albana, prouder, brighter, and deeply tied to its place.
Then the name kept travelling. During a meeting at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair, illustrator Alice Guidi showed us an image from her portfolio: the bissogaleto, a legendary creature from the Po Valley, somewhere between serpent, rooster, and toad, with a distant kinship to the basilisk of medieval bestiaries.
The sound of the two names, bessagalena and bissogaleto, immediately caught our attention. Not as something to prove too neatly, but as an old echo, a possible family resemblance. From there, the wine opened onto a small landscape of European folklore: hybrid creatures, water myths, serpents, metamorphosis.
That is also why the name feels right to us. It holds together two grapes, two characters, two movements. It keeps wine and story in the same room. A white wine deeply rooted in its territory, but with the curious step of something that occasionally wanders off and finds an unexpected path.
Technical Details
Tasting Notes
Straw yellow with greenish highlights. The nose offers white flowers, citrus, and a hint of almond. Fresh and balanced on the palate, with good acidity and a clean, mineral finish. The Trebbiano provides structure; the Albana adds depth and floral complexity.
Food Pairings
Seafood antipasti, risotto with vegetables, white meats. Perfect as an aperitivo or with a plate of piadina and squacquerone.