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5218 Lawton Avenue
Oakland, CA 94114

510-654-9159

Oliver McCrum Wines has been importing small production Italian wine and distributing to fine retail and restaurant establishes throughout California since 1994. Over time, our portfolio of producers has steadily grown to over 45 producers from 15 different regions of Italy. We look for typical Italian wines with clarity and freshness, usually made from indigenous Italian grape varieties using clean, transparent winemaking techniques and no obvious use of oak. 

Piccolo Goccio

About PICCOLO GOCCIO:

Piccolo Goccio is a range of authentic Italian wines, the same kind of wines you would be drinking sitting in a cafè in Italy.  (‘Piccolo Goccio’ means little sip, in Italian.) The wines are made from local grape varieties grown in different parts of Italy by some of our our favorite producers who take great care in their grape-growing and winemaking. Each wine has been chosen as an excellent selection for food pairing and daily drinking.

Piccolo Goccio includes a Barbera from Asti, a historic wine-producing region located between Torino and Milano; a Pinot Grigio from the foothills of the Dolomite Mountains in the Alto Adige; a Sangiovese from its home in Tuscany around the famous hilltop town of Montalcino; Trebbiano and Montepulciano from the beautiful Adriatic coast of Abruzzo; and a sparkling Glera, the classic Prosecco grape grown just north of Venice.

We have been exploring Italy for wines to import for more than 30 years and we love how well the local wines pair with local flavors. We feel strongly that the best examples of every grape variety are found in their historic regions and this selection of Italian wines represents just that. Our idea is to bring you a wine for every day of the week so you too can enjoy drinking your way around Italy, whether you are enjoying a classic Italian dish or your favorite local take-out.

A NOTE ON SUSTAINABILITY

Piccolo Goccio wines are not only delicious, but packaged with the environment in mind. We went to extra lengths to ensure that we adhered to our values of doing less harm when possible. To that end all Piccolo Goccio wines are packaged according to the following specifications: 

  1. Lighter bottles. The empty bottle for each wine ranges from 395g - 410g (the Brut is 750g which is the lowest allowable for a sparkling bottle). Lighter bottles have a smaller carbon footprint to start with (between a third and a half smaller than the average bottle), and are of course much more carbon-efficient to ship

  2. Lack of capsules. Wines bottled with Diam (not screwcap) do not have capsules, saving on foil and plastic.

  3. Environmentally friendly labels. All paper for front and back labels is made from 40% recycled material with 55% environmentally friendly fiber (certified FSC®). The remaining 5% is cotton fiber.

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The Wines:

BARBERA D’ASTI DOCG

Barbera makes the perfect Wednesday night red wine. It goes with all sorts of different foods, from a wide range of pasta dishes to chicken or salmon, or tacos, or a hamburger for that matter. The Piccolo Goccio variation is made by an excellent winery in the Asti area of Piedmont, which is Barbera’s home region, and we selected this cuvée for its bright take on the variety. We find it extremely quaffable and chillable as well, showing bright fruit notes like cherry and raspberry, with fresh acidity and little tannin.

montepulciano D’ABRUZZO DOC

Montepulciano is a grape variety native to central Italy that makes dark, deep, flavorful red wines. I think the best examples are from the Abruzzo region, and this one comes from a winery there, near Chieti. It’s bottled for us by a winery we’ve known for years. Fermentation and aging take place in stainless steel.

The Montepulciano variety (not to be confused with the town in Tuscany of the same name) makes good wine at every level of quality. It does very well as a red for daily consumption as we’ve intended with this Piccolo Goccio bottling. It is a beautiful deep garnet, with aromas and flavors of plums, cherries, tea-leaves, and graphite, medium body and some ripe tannins. Red meats or cheese would be obvious pairings. 

PINOT GRIGIO ALTO ADIGE DOC

Italy produces a number of really good white wines these days, but by far the best known is Pinot Grigio. To my taste, the best Italian region for fresh, flavorful Pinot Grigio is the Alto Adige (or South Tyrol), just south of the border with Austria in north-eastern Italy. We buy this Piccolo Goccio Pinot Grigio from an excellent winery there who we’ve known for years.

It’s an excellent everyday white wine, both flavorful and fresh, good by itself or with all kinds of food. In the glass it shows distinct pale yellow color, with aromas and flavors of ripe pear and apple, and hints of baking spices.  The grapes are grown in the hills along the Adige River; it’s fermented and rested in stainless steel tanks for freshness, and bottled about six months after harvest.

SANGIOVESE TOSCANA IGT

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TREBBIANO D’ABRUZZO DOC

There are a number of Italian white grape varieties called Trebbiano; this wine is from the Abruzzo region, in central Italy. It’s mostly made of two different Trebbianos,  Trebbiano Abruzzese and Trebbiano Toscano. We find it one of Italy’s best accessible white wines; this example is made by a winery we’ve known for years, near Chieti. Fermentation takes place entirely in stainless steel tanks, no oak is used.

Piccolo Goccio Trebbiano d’Abruzzo shows aromas and flavors of apple and almond, with hints of citrus and herbs. Fresh, green-apple acidity makes it perfect by itself or with a wide range of foods.

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