Italy - the sweet and the serious

One of the many things I love about Italian wines is that the most serious, ageworthy ones can rub along in close proximity with the fun, light and frivolous. UK wine lovers can have a tendency to revere the serious and to view anything sweet and fizzy as not worthy of their attention. Italian drinkers, it seems, have no such qualms. My summer holiday this year in Piedmont provided a wonderful example.

Piedmont is most famous for the twin (or at least sibling) regions of Barolo and Barbaresco either side of the picturesque town of Alba, famous for its truffle market. They produce big-boned, long lived red wines from the Nebbiolo grape which, as they age, can develop haunting aromas of English rose and tar, but with tannins which continue to exert a firm grip.

But a mere grape’s throw away, in villages around the small city of Asti, are Muscat vines which go to make Asti (Asti Spumante as was) and Moscato d’Asti.

Asti tout court is a fully sparkling wine with lowish alcohol, definite sweetness and a musky grapiness. It’s a completely valid style of wine, but the ones we tend to see in this country are made by the big producers and can be rather basic.

Moscato d’Asti is lightly sparkling, deeply fruity and sweet, but with alcohol of around just 4.5-5.5%, generally made on a more artisan scale and have more interest and character as a result.

They can be hard to find – not least because retailers tend not to put them on the shelf with other sparkling wines; and they come in standard bottles and corks, so don’t stand out amongst the still wines either. However, there are some to be found – independent merchants are a happy hunting ground for this kind of thing – and here are a few pointers to get you started. One final tip: you’ll notice these are all 2014 vintage and Moscato d’Asti is a prime example of a DYA (Drink Youngest Available) wine.

Contero Moscato d’Asti di Strevi 2014 - £12.95 from slurp.co.uk and independents

Elio Perrone Moscato d’Asti 2014 - £7.95 from The Wine Society

Vajra Moscato d’Asti 2014 - £13.99 – The Wine Reserve Cobham and other independents

Marco e Vittorio Adriano Moscato d’Asti 2014 - £9.75 (case price) The Good Wine Shop Esher

Piasa San Maurizio Moscato d’Asti 2014 - £11.50 – (case price) The Good Wine Shop Esher

Wines to get you all fired up

It’s a Bank Holiday weekend – think barbecues, bangers and bottles.

How to choose the right wine to accompany your burnt offerings? The golden rule is to forget anything delicate, subtle or complex, as these qualities will literally be wafted away on the summer breeze – or at the very least be obliterated by the smoke from the barbecue. What you want is big, bold and beefy (how long can I keep up this b-fest?).

Red wines

The Rhône varieties Syrah and Grenache, alone or together, have flavours that complement smoky barbecue fare. Here are some from the Rhône and beyond.

Château Pesquié Terrasses Ventoux 2012 - £12.75 online or as part of a mixed case of six from The Good Wine Shop (branches in Esher, Kew and Chiswick), £14 from R&B Wines, also at Bordeaux Index

Ventoux, a large wine region in northern Provence, has a low profile compared with nearby Southern Rhône stars like Gigondas and Châteauneuf-du-Pape and, it must be said, quality is mixed. However, there are some really good wines to be found, like this blend of mostly Grenache with some Syrah. Dark, rich berry fruits mingle with liquorice in the mouth. This will stand up to any meat lover’s barbecue.

The Cubist Old Vine Garnacha 2013, Calatayud, spain - £9.99 from Waitrose

Spain is a good source of big, ripe reds with the right kind of profile for outdoor eating. This has plenty of concentrated black fruit, along with a spice-herb-pepper combination on the side.

You could also try Cruz de Piedra Seleccion Especial Garnacha 2013 - £8.25 from The Wine Society.

Falernia Reserva Syrah 2011, Chile - £9.95 from Great Western Wine, £12.95 from Slurp.co.uk, also from independents

Chile makes some lip-smacking Syrahs that combine clean, ripe fruit flavours with a refreshing pepperiness. This is a real crowd-pleaser of a wine with bags of ripe, sweet fruit before the black pepper kicks in on the finish.

In the same vein, but with a bit more elegance is long-time Chilean Syrah superstar Matetic EQ Syrah 2012 - £16.50 from The Wine Society (2013), £17.95 from Slurp.co.uk (2011).  

White wines need to have plenty of personality if they are to stand up to outdoor drinking - this is not the time to uncork your best Pouilly Fumé. Go for wines with plenty of fruit, some weight and, if there’s spice involved, a bit of sweetness too.

A Mano Puglia Bianco 2014, Italy - £7.95 from The Wine Society, £8.95 from Slurp.co.uk and other independent merchants

This refreshingly different white, made from a blend of varieties including the aromatic Fiano, has bags of character and a certain soft weightiness with a food-friendly saline lick.

Cono Sur Reserva Especial Riesling 2012, Chile – on offer at Morrison’s for £5.99 (usually £8.99)

A little sweetness here makes for a good match with chilli, though the balancing acidity and zippy lime fruit mean that you won’t feel like you’re drinking anything sweet. And at this price, you can’t go wrong.

Franciacorta - the other Italian fizz

A frothy, fruity, lightly sweet tidal wave of wine from Italy has been rushing over the UK in the past ten years – and its name, of course, is Prosecco.

But Italy always has more tricks up its sleeve and if you are feeling the urge to explore its fizz further, Franciacorta could be your next destination.

Franciacorta doesn’t have a long history as a sparkling wine region. The first sparkling wines were made in 1961 and official DOC status came in 1967, followed by top of the tree in Italian wine law DOCG status in 1995. It lies in Lombardy, northern Italy, between the city of Brescia and the almost impossibly picturesque Lake Iseo (little brother to the more famous Garda and Como).

Commitment to quality is the hallmark of this small region. The wines are made in the same way as Champagne, with the sparkle deriving from a second fermentation in the bottle. The varieties grown are predominantly the classic Champagne varieties of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, with a little Pinot Blanc. Maximum grape yields are lower and maturation time of the wines on their lees are longer (both factors considered important for wine quality) than they must legally be in Champagne.

You can see that this is an “aim high” strategy and quality is definitely there in the wines – to use a very broad brush, they have the elegance of Champagne, but with greater ripeness of fruit thanks to their more southerly location. These are wines that all sparkling wine lovers should look out for.

Franciacorta wines in the UK

Exports to the UK are still relatively small, but seek and ye shall find:

Berlucchi Cuvée Imperiale NV – Majestic £19.99, currently £13.32 a bottle as part of their mix and match offer

This is the biggest selling Franciacorta anywhere and it makes for a great introduction:  a fairly typical blend of 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir, it is light, pretty and zippy with elegant fruit - and incredibly good value.

Ca’ del Bosco’s Cuvée Prestige NV is in the same stylistic mould, but with more nuanced flavours of lemon, green apple and melon and is a touch drier. Available from independent merchants at around £30 a bottle, £39.99 from Selfridges.

Bellavista completes the trio of big producers of Franciacorta and their Cuvée Alma NV is £28.95 from slurp.co.uk and a range of independent merchants. Time on the lees gives it a lovely biscuit and savoury dimension, which, combined with the baked apple fruit, is beguiling and moreish.

   

La Valle Franciacorte Rosé NV - £22.49 from italyabroad.com

This small producer makes only 50,000 bottles a year, so distribution here is understandably restricted. But I would happily recommend any of their wines that you come across (and online merchants italyabroad.com seem to be the sole importer to the UK).

So often the rosé versions of sparkling wines, and especially Champagnes, offer no more enjoyment than the regular cuvée, yet we cough up a good few quid more for them. In contrast, I was particularly struck by the quality of rosé Franciacorta.

La Valle’s rosé is 100% Pinot Noir and combines a food-friendly broad spiciness mid-palate, with succulent fruit and a delicate finish. Quite delicious. 

The beautiful game - and the beautiful drink

Everyone knows that wine and football go together like, oh I don’t know, Posh Spice and a box of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Which is to say, not at all. Undeterred, I shall press on in my mission to tie together the fruit of the vine and the beautiful game.

Over the coming weeks, you can drink along-a-football with my handy guide to footballing nations and their vinous claims to fame. With apologies to Chris Evans, Vassos Alexander and Radio 2 (ie please don’t sue me), here’s my Top Tenuous of World Cup and wine. 

At Number 10 – England. I know we did win it once but the brutal truth is that we don’t look likely to do so again anytime soon. Our wine fortunes, however, have been looking up in recent years, so now you can be proud to toast the success (or, let’s face it, probably lack of it) with some top flight English fizz.

Try

Nyetimber Classic Cuvée 2009: winner of a Gold medal and the English Sparkling Wine Trophy at this year’s International Wine Challenge. It shows that we do know how to be world beaters at something. £35.99, down to £30.58 a bottle if you buy two at Majestic; £27.50 from The Wine Society and £31.99 from Waitrose.

A surprise package at number 9 is Switzerland, notoriously the target of a barb from Orson Welles, playing Harry Lime in the film The Third Man: “In Italy for thirty years under the Borgias they had warfare, terror, murder and bloodshed, but they produced Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the Renaissance. In Switzerland they had brotherly love…500 years of democracy and peace and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”

The comment is hardly fair or accurate: they produced Swiss Army knives too didn’t they? Unbeknownst to many of us they have also been making wine for quite some time, but tend to drink most of it themselves.

Try

Look out for weighty, complex whites made from Petite Arvine and reds from Humagne Rouge. Alpine Wines (formerly Nick Dobson Wines) is the UK Specialist.

France appears at number 8. After their World Cup win in 1998, there have been mixed fortunes for France, both as a footballing and wine producing nation: domestic wine consumption is falling and increasing competition in export markets has put the squeeze on French producers.

Try

There is no doubting the class of French wines, and any wine lover is spoilt for choice when it comes to wine styles. From bone dry whites, to full bodied reds via lipsmacking rosés and not forgetting Champagne, there really is something for everyone. But please, spend over £7 if you want to find something worthwhile.  

In at number 7, Portugal’s football fortunes are essentially dependent on whether Cristiano Ronaldo has his goal scoring boots on. Wine-wise, Portugal has a much broader team to draw on, with a vast array of unique native grape varieties. Winemaking techniques have caught up with the quality of the raw materials, making this one of the world’s most exciting wine producers.

Try

Thrilling, complex reds from the Douro Valley. Crasto Douro Red is £10.99, or £9.34 if you buy 2, at Majestic. Sainsbury’s Taste the Difference Douro red is also made by the same producer and is £8.25.

Italy, at number 6, can never be ruled out of the running when it comes to football, and the same holds for its wines. Second only to France in the global wine production stakes, we have probably all had our fair share of disappointing reds and mind-numbingly dull whites from Italy in the past. The quality revolution has come here too though, so dip your toe in and you could find yourself charmed by an Italian all over again.

Try

Fiano makes juicy stonefruit-tinged whites. Look out for Tesco’s Finest Fiano, currently down from £7.99 to £5.99.

  

Number 5 brings us to the Netherlands. Consistent performers on the pitch, they are also, surprisingly, a wine nation, albeit a small one.

Try

You’re unlikely to find any Dutch wine here in the UK, so probably best to stick with beer.

A shudder goes through the English at the combination of football and the country at number 4 – Argentina. Hand of God and all that. Best leave it at that and concentrate on their wine-making abilities.

Try

It’s all about Malbec isn’t it? Bags of fruit, barbecue and meat friendly: perfect summer red. I have a fondness for the greater refinement and Messi-like silky skills of Pulenta Estate’s Gran Cabernet Franc - £25-28 at Berry Brothers and The Good Wine Shop.

For England there’s no getting past the country at number 3 – Germany. So often the team who lead to England’s footballing downfall, they seem full of confidence and technical ability. What of German wines though?

It’s time we overcame our prejudices and had another go at German wines – many more Trocken (dry) whites from Riesling are now available, which should help to convince us that German wine doesn’t have to taste like dolly mixture.

Try

Louis Guntrum Dry Riesling, £8.95 from The Wine Society

At number 2, Spain, the current cup holders, are sitting pretty. It seems unlikely that they could triumph again, but they are certainly easy on the eye on the pitch.

Spain’s wines are pretty easy on the palate too – who doesn’t love the mellow fruitiness and hint of shoe polish of a Rioja Reserva?

Try

Great value Rioja Navajas Crianza from The Wine Society – textbook smooth and sleek Rioja style for £7.75 a bottle. 

And at number 1 – home nation Brazil may be more known for rain forests, poverty, those buttock-revealing bikinis and (possibly related) frankly dodgy body grooming practices. But it is also a wine producer and the UK is now its biggest export market, which leads me to conclude that I wasn’t the first person to hit on this wine and football connection.

Try

Carnival Sparkling Moscato NV £9.99 or Coconova Sparkling Brut £8.99, both from Marks & Spencer for some frothy fun.

As they say in Brazil, tim tim! Which must be Portuguese for “Come on Tim!” – how nice of them, if a little out of date now.

Italy - an embarrassment of riches

If you ask any wine lover which is their favourite wine producing country, they tend to fall into two camps: the Francophiles and the Italophiles.

While I tend to plump for France (and a quick glance through my back catalogue of columns here will confirm this) I can see the case for Italy. The country, and its wines, are an endless source of fascination with a wealth of indigenous grape varieties to draw on and a long history of winemaking. You could spend a lifetime studying the wines of Italy (there are worse fates) and still not exhaust what this goldmine of vines has to offer. But there is also frustration, with lacklustre wines sometimes too much in evidence, a famous name on the label no real guide to quality and a tendency to play fast and loose with wine regulations.

I swear that every time I look at a wine map of Spain, they’ve added a new region I’d never heard of before. Italy manages the same trick with grape varieties – just when you think there can’t possibly be any more to discover, up pops another one – not new, per se, just new to me.

And is it any wonder? Italy is home to 377 indigenous grape varieties, which is more than any other wine producing nation. Much more, in fact, as the second placed country for native varieties is France with just over 200.

This abundance of grape varieties is due partly to the fact that Italy has been at this winemaking lark for a very long time – long enough for new varieties to emerge and evolve. Those ancient Romans might have invented central heating with their fancy-schmancy hypocausts, but when it comes to winemaking, they were just continuing a centuries-old tradition. The Greeks, who were on the scene before the ancient Romans, dubbed the country “oenotria”, or land of the vine, testifying to its already established wine-making credentials. 

Italy makes a lot of wine – it occupies the 2^nd spot after France; both are quite some way ahead of Spain in 3^rd place.  How much wine a year? Each year varies a little, but it’s somewhere over 40 million hectolitres – or about 20 times as much as New Zealand. 

The geography of Italy can be summarised as a range of hills and mountains surrounded by sea – very little of it is flat. The boot of Italy covers many latitudes, combined with the variations in altitude, soil type, exposure and grape varieties, making it one of the most diverse wine producers - perhaps the most diverse – in the world. You can begin to see why it might take years to get to become expert in such a multi-faceted jewel of a country.

In addition, it might not surprise you to know that Italians often employ a creative approach to applying its own, sometimes arcane, wine labelling laws. Labels seem to be either impenetrably over-populated with seemingly meaningless terms; or all attempts to convey something about what’s in the bottle are sacrificed to elegant, minimal label design.

I have memories of visiting the beautiful Amalfi coast south of Naples back in the 1990s. The scenery and the food were stunning – the wines were not. Determined to drink the wines of the region, I struggled to find something that was not utterly undrinkable. The good news is that, since then, there has been a quality revolution in Italy’s wineries. They have always had good raw material to work with, and at the top level the wines have long been high quality, but now they are increasingly rising above a sea of indifferent  dross at the more everyday level.

Recently I was asked to pick six wines to represent Italy, from top to toe. I could probably pick a different six wines every week for a year and still be nowhere near exhausting Italy’s winey riches. However, here is this week’s selection, for what it’s worth.

Prosecco Bellenda Brut 2012 - £14.99 from Caves de Pyrène and independent merchants

A wine trade friend of mine calls Prosecco, Drossecco – and it’s true that too much of it is dull, too sweet and coarse. This one is drier than most (Brut rather than Extra Dry) and comes from a single vintage rather than being a Non Vintage blend.

Greco di Tufo, Benito Ferrara 2012 - £17.90 from Caves de Pyrène

From Campania, scene of my disappointing wine tour of the 1990s, this would have cheered me up no end. It combines a high quality variety (Greco) with volcanic soils to make a wine with bags of character. Not particularly aromatic, but it has layers of flavour, including stone fruit, lovely texture and length.

Gewürztraminer “Joseph” J Hofstätter 2012 -

£13.95 from The Wine Society

Can this really be Italian, with all those Germanic-sounding names? Well it is, just. Alto Adige, in Italy’s far north, is also known as Süd Tirol – it was part of the Austrian Empire until the end of the First World War and the population is predominantly German speaking. This aromatic variety might be associated with Alsace or Germany, but it originates from here, around the village of Traminer. Expect rich, spicy, lychee and Turkish Delight flavours.

Marzemino, Castel Firmian 2012 - £6.95 from The Wine Society

Further down the Adige valley is the Trentino region, whence this wine comes. I love the way Italy can produce some of the most serious and sometimes austere wines (Barolo and Chianti spring to mind) but alongside them is happy to dish up light-hearted, unchallenging and delightfully fruity ones, such as this Marzemino.

Fondo Filara Etna Rosso, Nicosia 2012 - £10.95 from The Wine Society

To say that soils in the Etna region of Sicily are volcanic is something of an understatement. This is a typical Etna blend of Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio and its structure and minerality demand food.

Morellino di Scansano  “Bellamarsilia”, Poggio Argentiera 2012 - £11.81 from Caves

de Pyrène, Majestic has a very similar wine for £11.99

I’m avoiding the elephant in the room that is Chianti, which is too big and complex a region to be summed up in one wine – but this is one is close. From the Tuscan coast, this blend of Sangiovese (the Chianti grape) and the ancient Ciliegiolo has the black cherry and leafy characters of Chianti, but with more roundness and ripeness, making it easy to love and flexible with food.

Ancient and modern Tuscany

The Dorchester, that “Grand Dame” of Park Lane London was the very smart venue for a tasting of “A selection of the best wines of Tuscany”, dutifully and anticipatorily attended by yours truly Heather and Heather. The ballroom was transformed into a heady and aromatic marketplace of stalls, all clamouring for the attention of prospective wine buyers, distributors and press attention such as ourselves. Every space was filled with a seething mass of Italian verbosity and gesticulation - delightful but oh so difficult to balance a wine glass in the throng! 

I think it fair to say that we have never before attended such a popular exposition and decided that, as the invitation included an Italian-style lunch at the revered Dorchester, this could be part of the attraction.

Indeed we have to say that upon further observation, the interest in the eating (of course with suitably matched vino in hand) rather outweighed the attention being paid to classifying the merits of the various Tuscan wines showcased at the event. In other words, it was a mad bun-fight…..or maybe truly representative of all things Italy.

After a jostled antipasto Heather D declared it was time to go, as a rather calmer tasting of Languedoc wines was also on the agenda for the day and shouldered her way to the exit and the relative peace of Hyde Park.

Tuscany is, of course, home to Chianti, one of the most recognizable names in wine. Where wines benefit from a famous name to help them sell, like Chianti, Rioja or Chateauneuf-du-Pape, it's a reasonable rule of thumb that 1/3 of them will be very good, 1/3 OK and 1/3 fit only for the cooking pot – but sadly prices are not a reliable guide to which is which. Before leaving the crush at the Dorchester, Heather D tasted a near-perfect example of Chianti, which she felt it was her duty to pass onto you , however tempting it is to keep to ourselves! Castello Vicchiomaggio Vigna la Prima Chianti Riserva 2007 is far easier to appreciate than to write. Vicchiomaggio is a traditional estate, in the heart of the Chianti Classico region, and has been making wine since the 5^th century. Unsurprisingly, the wine is distinctly old-style and certainly none the worse for that. Ripe, combining sweet-savoury flavours; elegant, smooth as silk but with a certain juicy opulence, it is worth every penny of the £27.90 being asked by slurp.co.uk.

Heather A decided that she was in for the “secondi” – and sense of adventure paid off as she found a quiet haven in a hidden salon where all the prize winning fine wines were being elegantly served – persistence pays off!

Not being a believer in saving the best till last the favourite of the day was Rocca delle Macie Ser Gioveto Toscana IGT 2006. The 2004 vintage of this wine is available from Godalming-based merchants, Imbibros for £26.95 a bottle. Ser Gioveto is an award-winning wine from the dynamic and highly regarded Rocca delle Macie winery in the Sienna zone of Chianti, renowned for their low yields, green harvesting and manual picking of the fruit. The wine has a mature caramel-y tannicity and a velvety texture. It enfolds you in its arms like a big jovial country woman, a Pillar of the Earth indeed, Hemingway-esque we could say, but that would of course be Spanish rather than Italian…hopefully you get the gist.

 

Sasso al Poggio Toscana IGT 2005 from the Piccini family estates is distinctively different, the first whiff of the bouquet gives you blue cheese rind and the first sip a slightly bitter almond herbal taste. Don´t let this put you off, it develops wonderfully well in the mouth and the lingering finish leaves you wanting more. You can pick up the 2009 of this wine for £8.10 from online merchants, slurp.co.uk.

La Querce is a small wine estate in the Florentine hills area of Chianti. Their simply named La Querce Toscana IGT 2007 is a softly tannined, sensuous wine, a young but completely well-formed specimen having gained character from surviving the sometimes harsh climatic conditions by drawing on the water reserves created by the clay terroir. Sadly, this is a wine that you will need to seek out if you are planning a holiday in “Surrey by the Med” this summer, as it isn't currently imported into the UK.

Villa la Ripa overlooks the lovely medieval town of Arezzo, where recently discovered Etrusco-Roman remains have shown this to be one of the oldest vineyards in the region. Winemaking here is carried out with the greatest respect for the terroir located on a limestone plateau where the ancient vines produce some of the regions finest great growths. Tiratari Rosso di Toscana IGT 2008 is an elegant, full bodied wine with excellent ageing potential. It has something of the scent of warm clover meadows to entice your senses and if you want to give it a try, Secret Cellar of Tunbridge Wells have the 2005 for £19.49.

Spring is here, the proverbial green shoots now bursting into bloom, lawn trimming becoming obligatory and house renovations underway for so many of us, a busy time not just for the birds. Take time-out to breathe in the stories, history and romance and enjoy the vivacious new selection of wines from the epicentre of the old world, transforming themselves, Armani-style, to be the must have labels of today.I