Pasqua and Charles Smith unveil Pasqua + Smith Pinot Noir

Pasqua Vigneti e Cantine and Washington State winemaker Charles Smith unveiled Pasqua + Smith Pinot Noir at Vinitaly 2026. The project grew from a shared intention to challenge conventional assumptions while allowing the two partners to retain their distinct identities.

Pasqua had begun developing the underlying concept nearly a decade earlier, and Smith joined the work in 2021. Regular visits to the Campiano vineyard and extensive tastings of base wines dating to 2018 led Smith and Riccardo Pasqua toward a multi-vintage composition. The collaboration ultimately brought together Pasqua’s experience with multi-vintage blending and Smith’s emphasis on fruit expression, immediacy and freedom from preconceptions.

The project was also interpreted through Resonance, a site-specific installation by Sara Ricciardi at Palazzo Maffei during Vinitaly, from 10 to 14 April. Its central element was a four-metre geode opening into a landscape of light and sound. The installation represented two distinct identities meeting through dialogue and tension to create something neither could produce independently.

Smith described the project as an opportunity to do something unprecedented. He presented its guiding idea as authenticity rather than imitation, combining Old World depth with a more immediate, lively and accessible expression.