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 2nd
spot after France; both are quite some way ahead of Spain in 3rd
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 -
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
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.
