Ligurian White Lightning – Bruna's Stunning 2024 Pigato Has Arrived

Liguria in a Glass

The 2024 Bruna ‘Majè’ Pigato tastes like Liguria—like salty wind off the Mediterranean, like lemon groves carved into cliffs, like wild herbs and sun-warmed stones. It’s electric, aromatic, and alive.

Bruna is the benchmark producer of Ligurian Pigato, and the ‘Majè’ cuvée is their calling card. It’s grown just a few miles from the sea on impossibly steep terraces in the Riviera Ligure di Ponente, where the yields are low and the light is golden. Everything is done by hand—there’s no other way on slopes like these—and the family has been quietly making wines here since the 1970s, long before Liguria started landing on serious wine lists. It’s arguably the benchmark for Pigato—see this entry in Native Wine Grapes of Italy for Pigato. It’s also a fun discussion of the grape and the very Italian argument about to whom it properly belongs.

“Vermentino is actually Pigato. Wait a minute; no, Pigato is not Vermentino. After years debating the issue, researchers, wine experts and producers in Italy all agree to disagree on the subject. The academicians all apparently believe that Pigato and Vermentino are the same; many of Liguria’s wine producers do not. Being facetious, you might say that’s because the grapes are both Favorita. No, wait: they’re all Piccabon (a wrong attribution: we now know Piccabon is identical to Vernaccia di San Gimignano). And so the story goes on. And on. According to recent genetic testing, however, Piedmont’s Favorita and western Liguria’s Pigato appear to be biotypes of Vermentino, rather than distinct varieties… For the best Pigatos, try: Bruna.” – Ian d’Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy

The 2024 vintage of ‘Majè’ is striking—brisk and salty, with citrus peel, white flowers, and a whisper of fresh herbs. There’s a gentle textural depth here, too, a kind of creamy roundness that balances the minerality and makes it more than just a seafood wine (though it is phenomenal with oysters, anchovies, or grilled octopus). It’s the kind of white wine that I want to drink right now.

As said above, Pigato is genetically close to Vermentino, but in Bruna’s hands it becomes something more intense, more site-specific, more Ligurian. It’s not just fresh—it’s vivid. And while the wines of Liguria are still under the radar compared to the rest of Italy, that won’t last long.