Dan's Papers - August 3, 2007 - Getting "The Boot"

Comprehending Italy's Wines May Not Be An Easy Task, But It Is A Task Well Worth The Effort

As a wine consultant to both retail shops and restaurants, I have noticed that some wine categories are more difficult for consumers to understand than others. The Bordeaux and Napa Valley regions appear to be the easiest to grasp, as sales of these wines in both the retail and restaurant arenas indicate. After all, how hard is it, with a bit of experience, to recognize the grape and style of a Napa Cabernet or a Bordeaux Rouge?

But even sophisticated wine consumers who may be comfortable with the varietals of Bordeaux and California may find themselves at a loss when it comes to the great regions of Italy. Determining the style of an Italian wine as being from Barolo, Brunello or Bolgheri takes much more practice, primarily because two of these regions use entirely different grapes and the third can use almost any grape it chooses!

Though the Italians are proud to talk about all their indigenous grapes (somewhere around 2000 today, closer to 4000 in the past), the reality is that most of those 2000 were likely brought over from Greece during the few centuries that Italy was part of that empire. So what happened to the other 2000 grape varieties? These have become extinct from lack of use, and today there are many more on the verge of becoming extinct.

Luckily there are many great and innovative viticulturists and winemakers that are working with grapes such as Arneis, Sagrantino, Uva di Troia (guess the heritage on that one), Gaglioppo, Piedirosso, Coda di Volpe, and Refosco, to name a few. Confusing, right? For me to completely unravel Italian wine for our Dan's readers would take far more space than I am allowed, so here is a bit of an introduction to clear a few things up.

To begin, you should know that the most-planted grape in Italy is Sangiovese (the grape of Chianti, Chianti Classico and other areas of Tuscany), while the second most-planted is Barbera. Sangiovese is the grape of Central Italy, while Barbera is the grape of the north. We all know the shape of Italy (a peninsula often referred to as "the boot") and remember from elementary school all the earthquakes, volcanoes and wars of that boot's history. All these factors make Italy perfect for viticulture. There are lots of coastal regions, plenty of mountains and slopes and lots of interesting soils due to the geology of the country.

As with most European wine regions, the focus here is on place. Most Italian wine labels will list the region as opposed to the grape, so we need to recognize the grape and style of the wine. Italy is split into twenty political states, and each state produces plenty of wine. For vinous purposes it is best to divide the country into three sections: North, Central and South/Islands, as each region has vastly different climates, heritage and therefore wine styles.

The north includes the states of Valle d'Aosta, Piedmont, Liguria (Italy's Riviera), Lombardia, Alto-Adige/Trentino, Veneto and Friuli; Central Italy includes Emilia-Romagna, Tuscany, Maches, Umbria, Lazio and Abruzzo; the South includes Campania, Molise, Puglia, Basilicata and Calabria; the Islands are Sicilia and Sardegna. This means that for terrain and climates we go from the Dolimites and snow-capped Alps in Valle d'Aosta and Alto-Adige in the north to the heat and volcanoes of Sicilia, Campania and Basilicata in the south. As you can imagine, the differences between Italian wines are vast.

At the beginning of this article I mentioned three famed wine regions, Barolo in the north in Piedmont (foot of the mount), and Brunello and Bolgheri, both in Tuscany of Central Italy. The styles of these wines are very different, as are the grapes used.

Barolo is considered to be the king of wine in Italy and has the capacity to age for decades. In fact, the wines can be exceedingly hard-edged when young. Barolo is produced (or legally should be) only from Nebbiolo, a tannic and floral-charactered grape that is one of the last to ripen in the vinous world. The wines have a mix of dark aromas (cigar, tar) and floral aromas (violets, dark and red cherry) plus a dose of tannins, making them a good match for hearty game dishes and truffles, both of which are prevalent in the area. Nebbiolo is planted in only six-tenths of one percent of Italy, so the prestige of the grape far exceeds its acreage. The grape is also used in Barbaresco (the queen to Barolo's king), Gattinara and Ghemme.

Sangiovese is the most important grape of Italy and can be found in every one of the twenty states, but it does best in the temperate regions of Central Italy. It is most linked to Tuscany and especially Chianti/Chianti Classico. Brunello is a local synonym for the Sangiovese grape, which makes up one hundred percent of the famed Brunello di Montalcino wines just to the south of Chianti Classico. Sangiovese is also a grape that quickly mutates when moved to a new climate, exposure or soil - imagine a friend moving to Florida and adapting to the climate of that place - so the particular version used in Montalcino is today called Sangiovese Grosso (though it is actually smaller in size than Sangioveto - those crafty Italians!). Today Brunello di Montalcino is more famous than other Sangiovese-based wines, but that wasn't the case prior to 1970 when the Mariani Family, founders and owners of the distributor Villa Banfi, moved their headquarters from NYC to Old Brookville on Long Island and began looking for vineyards to purchase in Montalcino. Banfi is widely credited with putting Brunello in the spotlight on the international wine scene.

The last two introductory Italian wines of Tuscany must be Chianti Classico and a fake sort of category called 'Super Tuscans.' The Bolgheri I mentioned earlier is home to some of the most famed Super Tuscans with names like Sassicaia, Ornellaia and a whole lot of other 'aia's. These wines are referred to as Super Tuscans because they do not depend solely on Tuscany's Sangiovese grape, but instead are blends of whatever works best in the climate and soils of the coastal region of Bolgheri, including interlopers such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. These are sometimes blended with Sangiovese, sometimes not. The original group of Super Tuscans are Cabernet-based, so they have a touch of Bordeaux character mixed with an essence of Tuscany, and the best stand next to the Lafites of the world in quality.

Besides Sassicaia and Ornellaia, other great wines of the category include Grattamacco, Aia Vecchia, Antinori's Guado al Tasso and Le Macchiole. Another Super Tuscan originates from the Chianti Classico region and is a result of a producer (Antinori) having contempt for the laws governing the Chianti Classico up till the mid 1990s. Prior to the law change, Chianti Classico's laws required that white wine be blended into the reds, but Piero Antinori did not want to 'water down' his great wine. So he labeled his best wine as Tignanello and used eighty percent Sangiovese blended with twenty percent Merlot. When he originally did this in the 1970s it was illegal and he could not call his wine Chianti Classico or even the lesser appellation of Chianti, so he labeled his wine as a Vino di Tavola or table wine. Today the Chianti and Chianti Classico laws allow Tignanello to be labeled as such, but the wine's reputation has been established under its current name and labeling and so Antinori now refuses to change it. Fortunately, as a result of the law change, the wines of Chianti Classico have climbed out of their 1970s doldrums, and there are now some really great wines coming out of this region.

As for the rest of Italy, those wines will have to wait for another Dan's Wine Guide, or you can e-mail me to arrange for some private tutoring. But certainly don't dismiss the wines of Italy's other regions, especially those from Veneto, Friuli, Alto-Adige and Campania, to name a couple of my favorites at the moment.