Italy's native wines: Vitigno Italia celebrates indigenous grape varieties

The Vitigno Italia event starts on Sunday in Naples, in a wine exhibition that showcases what we can describe as Italy’s “native wines”. Vitigno Italia is specifically dedicated to grape varieties from Italy, and should prove to be a fascinating event, to taste everything from Arneis to Aglianico, Zibibbo and back again.

Alternatively speaking, I am a particular fan of Italy’s southern grape varietals (otherwise I stick to nebbiolo which is an all-time favourite of mine). Impressive indigenous wines, particularly from Campania, include Greco di Tufo, falanghina, and aglianico, and moving further north Tuscany offers some great vermentino, though I also love Vermentino di Gallura from Sardinia.

In its 2009 Italy supplement, Decanter takes a look at Italy’s indigenous whites, saying that insipid Italian white wines have damaged the country’s reputation. Mark O’Halleron takes a look at some of the indigenous whites, saying that it is a reputation that, “on the basis of this tasting, Italy has been rather harshly lumbered with”.

I couldn’t agree more, and if the UK hasn’t got its hands on good Italian whites, and has only “unimaginative” Pinot Grigio or Soave on offer, more fool them. It doesn’t take much exploring in Italy to find some excellent whites, and some even more excellent native whites.

So here’s hoping that Vitigno Italia will be a real celebration; after all, Italy has the most incredible patrimony in terms of grape varieties, that makes it an exciting country to explore, via its wines.

P.S For a look at some interesting wine from Campania, take a look at Terredora: amazing Greco di Tufo, coda di volpe (I love this name for a grape: “the fox’s tail”) and Taurasi (aglianico).

Australian prosecco: Brown Brothers upsets Italians

In a recent post on his blog Vino al vino, Franco Ziliani writes about Australian prosecco and Italian products being 'copied' overseas. At 26 comments and counting, a furore has ensued over what the Italians perceive as another episode in their beloved enogastronomic products being imitated around the world.

The more sensitive issue for Italians is not that overseas sources are copying their products, but that Italians themselves are incapable of properly protecting and promoting their culture and quality produce.

My take? Prosecco is a type of grape, so it is permissable that it be used in other wine making regions, Italy or overseas, and that it be given that name. For example, when, in Australia and the rest of the world, you could no longer say "Champagne", we were talking about a regional name and all the tradition and culture that lies behind that wine making technique. That does not mean we can no longer write "chardonnay" on a bottle of sparkling wine, it being the grape variety most used in that style of wine.

In addition, the Italians need to first learn to appreciate their own produce. Prosecco is one of the most bastardised words in wine in Italy, much like spumante, and many Italians drink "prosecco" as an aperitif without knowing what it is, whether that's what's really in the glass and whether it's of quality or not.

As pointed out in many of the comments on Vino al vino, the Italians need to devise a comprehensive system of protecting and promoting their own products. As one reader says, a wine tasting once a year of authentic Italian wine at the embassy in the US (and in any other country for that matter), does not constitute a concerted PR effort in the face of the many imitation Italian products that exist.

The argument is far more complex than I have been able to outline here, but it will be interesting to see if it becomes another example of intellectual property in the wine making world. For my part, I would be interested in trying the Brown Brothers prosecco, if only to taste an expression of this wine from another part of the world. That I would favour it over a good Italian prosecco from Valdobbiadene for all its tradition, culture and quality is another debate.

Wines from Slovenia: finding Pulec Wines at Vinitaly

The owner of Pulec wines happens to be a very nice man, and while his stand of wines from Slovenia at Vinitaly is nothing remarkable, it is worth a detour both for the welcome from the owner and the wines themselves.

Pulec wines is just across the border from Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Italy’s renowned white wine region of excellence. In addition, Pulec wines shares the same territory of the Collio DOC area of Friuli, which can be seen as a guarantee of quality.

Their wine range from Slovenia includes among the whites: friulano (formerly known as tocai friulano), ribolla gialla, pinot grigio and chardonnay, and for the reds: cabernet sauvignon and merlot.

I found the friulano (denominated sauvignonasse in Slovenia) and pinot grigio particularly impressive, with lovely intense perfumes and very soft in the palate. They are quite high in alcohol but should be great food matching wines. I also tried the cabernet sauvignon which was quite young, but showing excellent promise. It was full-bodied and tannic but its fruit and vegetable flavours should come to the fore in time.

Looking at the Pulec Wines gallery, you can see what a beautiful area they are in, with hillside terrain providing an ideal micro-climate. While the family still sells some of its grapes, they plan to increase their own bottling and labeling in time, with a new cellar that is currently on hold due to the economic downturn. Cellar visits in Slovenia are possible though.

Among the elbowing for space and the showing off of many visitors to Vinitaly, this was a truly unique and pleasant experience from a company proud of its traditions, and who believes in the quality and potential of its wines. I would say that if you’re looking for something different, Pulec Wines is definitely worth exploring.

Travelling with wine: sending wine to Australia, part one

I’m currently undergoing my first attempt to post wine to Australia from Italy which could prove to be a hilarious exercise in showing that the Italians, unfortunately, are really a disorganised race.

I believe Italy is a country unparalleled in its rich offering of wines – it has truly everything, not always at high quality but if you go exploring, you will find some real wine gems in Italy. So the first step, and the hardest, was deciding what to send.

I settled with a slightly eclectic and simple mix that wasn’t too expensive, bearing in mind I couldn’t guarantee that it wouldn’t be confiscated by Australian customs. So currently sitting in Alexandria airport, Sydney are a couple of bottles of Greco di Tufo and Taurasi, grape varieties of Greco and Aglianico from Campania; and a couple of bottles of Valtellina nebbiolo as that’s my home ground in Italy.

You may think I wasted my choice, but I believe they will still be appreciated and as they’re destined for under the Christmas tree (or in the cellar where they probably won’t stay for long), we’re about drinking and sharing here, not impressing. Depending on success, more significant bottles may be destined for future shipment.

Australian customs has done the usual routine enquiries regarding alcohol shipments and here’s hoping that they wines will soon be released to the family. In which case, the shipment to Australia via Italian post/FedEx was simpler than the shipment of the wines from Campania to Milan. Why? Because the first transporter got the address wrong.

They decided to ignore all instructions and instead of delivering to my house, delivered to English school I used to work at in the same building who, luckily knowing me, decided to sign for the wine anyway. My former colleagues then forgot to inform me that six bottles of wine were sitting on the classroom floor, and I came across them one evening when I popped in to say hello.

The response from the transporter: when were they going to get around to telling me as they had their entire network searching for the whereabouts of the wine...? My response: perhaps you should have delivered them to the correct address in the first place. On my pointing this out, the guy on the phone politely wished me a pleasant evening, and promptly hung up. Episode two on the eventual whereabouts of the wine will continue this week.

Vermentino from Australia

An interesting discussion came up on our Ozwine group mailing list on the grape variety, Vermentino. I have just recently had the opportunity to try some vermentino, traditionally a variety from Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia in Italy.

I have been sampling some Sardinian wine recently, one of which is a Vermentino di Gallura DOCG from the wine coop Giogantinu. The wine has 13% alcohol and is very soft and inviting, with a thickness on the palate which lets you know you’re drinking hot climate white wine.

I also recently tried a Vermentino from the Montecucco area of Tuscany. It turned up most surprisingly at a dinner I was at recently where French wine should have been the protagonist. Unfortunately I didn’t get the producer’s name, but this was a far more elegant, fresh and subtle example. Really worth a try.

The discussion in our Ozwine group came up with Australian vermentino examples, including Brown Brothers, Foxey's Hangout the White Fox Vermentino and Mudgee growers, Di Lusso, who specialise in Italian varieties (thanks to Ozwin-ers for the tips!).

All this comes down to the fact that after my explorations of Italian vermentino, I will have to try the Australian interpretation of Italian wine, and try some “true blue” vermentino when I’m home at Christmas. It could make for the perfect summer aperitif.