Italy’s most important grapes

With France dominating the grape pantheon of the wine world, it is always reassuring to know that there are a few countries able to offer something a little different.

Italy is just such a place, with a viticultural heritage older than that of France, some of the most eclectic grapes on the planet and a bewildering array of vineyard classifications which sticks two fingers up to organisational good sense.

It is no wonder that some people find Italy a daunting prospect, but, demands Berry Bros & Rudd’s Italian buyer David Berry Green: “Why does the standard have to be Cabernet Sauvignon and co? Italian grapes aren’t ‘quirky’, they just have a different name.”

On the subject of tackling Italian wines and their regions he reasons: “We simply need to be very clear about which are the key varieties in each region just as we’ve been brought up knowing which varieties are key to each French region. In Burgundy they don’t talk about Aligoté or Pinot Blanc, they talk about Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.”

There’s no reason to be scared of Italy’s selection, agrees Gemma Adams, product manager at Grossi Wines. “I don’t think it’s the native grapes that are a hindrance. The Italians haven’t been very organised when it comes to talking about them. People are excited by new grapes.”

It hardly needs mentioning that Italy, for better or worse, spawned the craze for Pinot Grigio (a matter to be discussed later) and Prosecco is currently enjoying a booming rise in popularity. Indeed, Italian wine is the second most imported in the UK (WSTA figures to July 2012) with volumes of 19.5 million, showing a 10% year-on-year increase and a 69% increase in the last 10 years.

“Italian wine is a leader in the range of value-for-money wines it can offer, both to the on- and the off-trade,” says chairman of Masi Agricola, Sandro Boscani. “Wines made from native Italian grapes offer a vast range of possibilities for food and wine matching with every type of cuisine. In this sense they are a breath of fresh air, unconventional, not copies at all, and they present a real alternative to the standardisation involved in wines made from international grapes.”

Trends aside, Italy already boasts long-established fine wine credentials with, Barolo, Brunello di Montalcino, Amarone and Vin Santo. Today, there are some who cite potential for more southerly regions to join these flagships, thanks to the rising quality shown by varieties such as Aglianico and Nerello Mascalese. So which grapes will be key to Italy’s future?

Sangiovese

Sangiovese is one of Italy’s most important red grapes and one planted more widely than is usually realised. It has a great many clones and Adams worries that overuse can “standardise it, even if it’s from different areas”.

On the other hand, better clones and viticulture means that Sangiovese is on the rebound, able to stand on its own merits and without the support of Merlot and Cabernet to give it a bit of beef – a good thing as Green reports quite a lot of French varieties are being dug up as they can’t take the heat so well as the indigenous ones.

It’s not easy though, as Querciabella’s marketing director Stephanie Cuadra explains: “One might say that the matrix of great Sangiovese consists of optimal growing conditions, meticulous care and boundless patience. It should therefore come as no surprise that truly exceptional, cellar-worthy Sangiovese is relatively rare. A growing commitment to land stewardship, a focus on artisanship and the desire to express idiosyncrasies rather than flatten unique territorial features will certainly raise the bar.”

Green meanwhile has been arguing for some time now that the differences between communes in Chianti Classico is becoming so strong that there needs to be greater emphasis on the villages – something that could also help distinguish between Chianti and Chianti Classico further still.

Nebbiolo

The other great Italian red grape, “the king (or queen?)”, in fact, is Nebbiolo, reminds Matteo Berlucchi, founder of Italian wine retailer Vini Italiani.

Although it is the villages of Barolo and Barbaresco and names such as Gaja and Conterno that have collectors falling over themselves – “our own Cabernet Sauvignons: versatile, elegant, complex and multi-faceted”– Berlucchi offers a timely reminder that “the Nebbiolos from Alba and Langhe are an excellent entry point for people who want to discover this elegant grape.”

Giuseppe Rizzardi, winemaker at Veneto estate Guerrieri Rizzardi, does add though that once you take it out of the famous communes, “it’s still great but loses some complexity”.

Of all the Italian grapes being grown around the world, Nebbiolo is often the holy grail. Italian varieties seem almost suicidally devoted to particular soil and terroirs, which has made it extremely difficult to plant them with any great success around the world. Some are appearing, although Berry Green feels they’re perfectly well made but “they haven’t got what Piedmont offers; possibly they lack the clones, the terroir”.

Nonetheless, with news that many French varieties are being grubbed up in Italy because of the heat, he adds: “I think you’ll see a great many more Italian varieties around the world with climate change as the French ones can’t cope.”

Another version of Piedmont Nebbiolo that Adams thinks might be of great interest to serious wine fans is Sforzato, produced further north in Valtellina with a method reminiscent of Amarone.

“It’s a really exciting wine,” she enthuses. “Not exactly a cross between the two but that’s how people will see it. Though it’s not as expensive as Amarone as no one knows about it yet.”

Nerello Mascalese

Turning away from the north now, one variety in Sicily that is turning heads is Nerello Mascalese.

“Nerello Mascalese is an awesome grape that, in my opinion, deserves a lot more fame thanks to its unique ecosystem: the foothill of the highest active volcano in Europe, cool air and loads of Sicilian sunshine,” says Berlucchi.

“Nerello is showing the versatility of Pinot Noir and we are seeing some incredible examples being produced by the growing number of producers in the area.”

“It’s a niche product and is very interesting in terms of its taste and wine profile, says Sergio Dagnino, CEO of Caviro Group. “However, the quantity produced is very limited, as it’s only cultivated in Sicily and therefore will not become the next Pinot Grigio.”

Nero d’Avola

Sicily’s Mount Etna

One variety that has become more popular in recent years is fellow Sicilian Nero d’Avola. Once as obscure as so many other southern Italian grapes, it is now supermarket friendly, but is it stuck in the entry-level category or is it capable of finer wine?

One producer who subscribes to the latter view is Pierpaolo Messina, winemaker at Societa Agricola Marabino. He argues: “It is important for Nero d’Avola to age in bottle. People don’t understand that it can age for 10 years; they make it to sell quickly.”

Messina also picks out particular DOC for Nero d’Avola, with possibly the “best expression” coming from Noto in the very southern tip of the island near Syracuse.

Berlucchi, however, is not convinced: “Nero D’Avola is a pleasant wine but it’s hard to take it to the next level, especially if not blended with other grapes. There are some interesting experiments by young producers blending Nero with other lesser-known local grapes like Frappato. The higher bracket is unfortunately taken by Nerello Mascalese and it will be hard for Nero to top it.”

Treading a more central pathway is Rizzardi who argues that the potential is there but ponders: “You have to know the area very well to plant it in the right spot, then have old vines, small production. It’s work in progress. In five to 10 years it’ll be clearer who’s producing serious Nero d’Avola.”

Aglianico

Another Italian grape with fine wine ambitions is Aglianco in Campania. Plantings are on the rise and, with a DOCG in Taurasi and DOC Aglianico di Vulture in Basilicata to its credit, its potential is already clear to many. Some apparently call Taurasi the Barolo (or Brunello) of the south.

We already know that it can make wine with medium to long ageing potential,” says Rizzardi. “The wines can definitely age and you can produce a serious, deep wine with it. It needs good viticulture to make it not too rustic, but it has more evident potential.”

Although, like Nero d’Avola, it is a robust southerner, it lacks the softer fruitiness that helped make the former so appealing.

“It’s much more tannic and not as palate friendly,” agrees Adams. “It’s heavy, can be a bit astringent. I don’t think it will ever fall into the supermarket category. Those grown on the volcanic soils in Basilicata are something the wine lover loves though and will be overlooked by the majority of supermarkets. It’s a bit too difficult to sell a lot of.”

Fiano, Falanghina & Greco di Tufo

Apollo at Pompeii, Falernian wine was possibly made from Falanghina

Although Italy’s reds generally enjoy greater prestige than its whites, these represent a key and as yet relatively untapped weapon in Italy’s arsenal.

Generic Pinot Grigio may be too bland for many but Italy, and in particular the south, has legions of attractive and approachable varieties to choose from including these three from Campania.

“I think they’re going to be very popular,” Adams declares. “Fiano just rolls off the tongue. They’re also good value, not fetching too high a price and we have customers now who know about them.”

“Fiano is the most popular – we sell a lot through Tesco – and have seen that consumers are getting used to this type of wine,” Dagnino adds.

He also says that they will remain rather niche products, though if these original varieties can escape the bastardisation Pinot Grigio has had to endure then perhaps that is for the best.

Berlucchi thinks they could be an “elegant alternative to Sauvignon Blanc”, and while Adams questions whether that particular tryst is in any way ending it is certainly what some of the producers think.

“The time for perfumed wines is past,” thinks Amedeo de Palma of Azienda Fonzone. “People are fed up with drinking perfumes; now is the time of minerality.”

Vermentino

In a similar vein to the mainland trio, Vermentino is another Italian white with the potential to do well in a market like the UK, where white is still the largest category (WSTA figures for 2012 show that white consumption in the UK is 58.2 million cases compared to 56m for red).

Sardinia is the variety’s true home although there are also a number of high quality Tuscan expressions. “Gallura [a Sardinian DOC] is the top-end one,” says Adams, of the island’s most prestigious viticultural corner. As for the distinct style of Vermentino found here, he remarks: “Sardinian ones tend to be quite lemony compared to the oilier Tuscan variety.”

For Berlucchi, “It’s captivating and most people immediately get hooked when they try it. There are a lot of shades of Vermentino depending on the part of Sardinia it comes from as the weather and soil there change dramatically from one town to the other.”

Glera

Glera is possibly one of the most important of Italy’s grapes that no one will ever really know much about.

It is the grape used to make Prosecco and is a name dredged up from the past and registered to help protect the style’s DOCG and DOC designated area in the manner of the Champenois.

With good reason too – Prosecco is buoyant at the moment in the UK. Not only are Brits slated to be the world’s biggest fizz consumers by 2016, Tesco announced earlier this year that its Prosecco sales were outperforming both Champagne and cava, with year-on-year sales up 50%.

Protecting the name and registering it as a DOCG for the sake of quality was an important step in saving Prosecco from debasement but “Glera will never become a household name”, believes Berlucchi. “Prosecco is already very trendy and here to stay.”

Trebbiano

Is Trebbiano unfairly maligned? Rizzardi gives the usual, noncommittal comment: “it can be nice”.

But Berlucchi is emphatic: “Definitely! Trebbiano suffers from the typical problem that plagues turnaround businesses: everyone remembers them for what they did before the turnaround! The current wines, in particular from Abruzzo, using the Trebbiano grape, one of the oldest grapes used to make wine in Italy, are achieving stellar heights.” Trebbiano has its believers. Not long ago the Trebbiano d’Abruzzo from Valentini claimed the top award in sommelier Luca Gardini’s Best Wines of Italy competition. Not best wine in its category, not best white, but best wine, beating the likes of Super Tuscans as it did so.

The reason for this is clearly that Trebbiano is not just a high-cropping, good-only-for-distillation grape if it’s properly handled.

“Another interesting thing about it is the clones,” states Adams. “Lugan DOC (in Lombardy) is a Trebbiano, mineral and complex if light. Buriano is another clone with gorgeous tropical fruit, minerality and really creamy texture. There’s loads to get out of Trebbiano.”

Pinot Grigio

Is there any salvation for Pinot Grigio? Just as Trebbiano is fighting its bland image, then Pinot Grigio needs to do likewise if it wishes to salvage its quality image.

However, it has possibly sunk so far that, as Adams, notes: “It’s a shame it’s been mass produced and has had its reputation destroyed as it’s worth seeking out. Friuli is a region with small production, interesting soils and winemaking technique. People actually have rather a shock when they do have a more traditional one.”

The trouble with Pinot Grigio now is that it is a brand. No one cares about its sub-regions and their differences.

Caviro, Dagnino reports, sold 6.5m bottles of Pinot Grigio in the UK last year and says that the demand is still growing.

“All of the players who produce Pinot Grigio are very satisfied. Everybody in Italy is looking for the next Pinot Grigio and this is something that we have been working on also.”

But that is the problem. Pinot Grigio is possibly the most complex white on this list, capable of producing fine white wines to rival its cousins in Alsace, but its character has been subsumed by the degradations of consumerism and commercialisation.

What Italy has in its native grapes, red or white, is too interesting and precious to simply turn into a commodity.

With Italian wines coming back into the spotlight through the fine wine market and experimental plantings around the world, Italy needs to be setting the benchmarks for excellence with its grapes, not, as Rizzardi remarks, sacrificing “the association with quality”.