Southern Italian Reds—Strange Names, Wonderful Wines

One of the great things about Italian wines is that you can buy a different varietal every week and still be sampling new ones six months later. Over a thousand different grapes are vinified in Italy. This, combined with the fact that Italian wine labels often indicate the origin rather than the type of grape the wine is made from, can make walking the Italian aisle a frightening experience. But the wines are extraordinary, can be great alternatives to the usual fare, and can make you look really smart in the process.

A perfect example is a grape called Negroamaro which is grown almost exclusively in Puglia (“the heel of the boot” ). When people are in the California Zinfandel aisle, I often suggest this as an alternative—same big fruit but a point or two lower in alcohol (so not as “hot” as some Zins), not over baked (some Zins get a little raisiny) and more elegant and earthy. The grape’s name translates to “black and bitter” and does have a bitter black cherry finish sometimes. It tends to be deep in color and robust and earthy with big aromas and flavors of dark fruit. Around the town of Salento, the Negroamaro is often blended with the very fragrant Malvasia Negro to make a complex big wine, Salice Salintino, which can be marvelous. We are talking about prices in the twelve to sixteen dollar range, so they are great bargains. One of my favorites is N Zero, 100% Negroamaro at $12.99. Leone de Castris Salice Salentino at $15.99 is a no brainer. 

Sicily is known for the Mafia, Mount Etna, and great food. Thanks to some up and coming winemakers, it is also becoming known for its indigenous grape, Nero d’Avola. Once mainly a blending grape in bulk wines, spectacular examples of wine from this grape are emerging and should not be missed. These wines are dark in color, big in dark fruit flavors, earth, and smoke with moderate tannins. Arianna Occhipinti is a rock star winemaker only in her late twenties who is putting Sicily on the map with her organically grown wines. Her elegant, complex TAMI Nero d’Avola shows the heights this varietal can reach—a bargain at $18.99.

When people come into the store looking for a wine to go with a ribeye dinner, they are usually standing in the California Cabernet section. I have no argument against a big, tannic, mountain-grown Cab as a great match to the well-marbled meat. Likewise, a left bank Bordeaux is wonderful. But as you might guess, the southern Italian section offers a perfect alternative.

Aglianico is a monster grape grown in the Basilicata and Campania regions of southern Italy. Italian wine is my first love, and this may be my favorite varietal of all. Originally introduced by Greek settlers, it has become one of Italy’s finest grapes. The grape produces wines of huge dark fruit, massive tannins, and a bracing acidity which makes very age-worthy. The wine is known as “The Barolo of the South,” after the Nebbiolo-based Barolos of Piedmont that can age for decades (and cost hundreds of dollars). They boast aromas and flavors of dark fruit, dark chocolate, coffee, leather, smoke, and mineral. In Basilicata, these grapes are grown around the ancient volcano Monte Vulture and comprise the region’s only DOCG. In Campania, the grapes are grown around the town of Taurasi, and the wines and the DOCG have the same name.

Mastroberadino’s 2005 Taurasi Radici may be one of my favorite wines of all time. It is absolutely massive with dazzling power and depth—believe it or not, a bargain at $63.99. For the more moderate pocketbook, a humble farmer makes a version of this wine that I keep in my house at all times. San Martino Siir Aglianico de Vulture is the best $19.99 wine you’ll ever pour next to a giant medium-rare prime rib. This wine is biodynamically farmed and has a wonderful rustic quality that will hook you.

These three varietals are only a tiny sample of what you can find in the vineyards of Italy. I have customers who I take on Italian shopping trips through the store every week or two. They first come in totally lost and afraid to sample them, and before they know it, they’re addicted. As far as addictions go, there are far worse.

Cheers!

The Amazing Lady Winemakers of Italy

Women are making their mark in all walks of life, including the wine industry. While America has its Helen Turley, nowhere are women making a greater impact on winemaking than in Italy, where three women are rapidly joining the ranks of the truly elite.

Elisabetta Foradori has become one of Italy's "superstar" winemakers and without a doubt is Italy's finest producer of wines made from Teraldego, one of Italy's oldest and finest endogenous grapes. All of her vineyards are in the Campo Rotaliano region of Trentino, where this grape (genetically related to Syrah) reaches its zenith. From these biodynamically farmed vineyards she is quietly making some of Italy's most complex, deep and compelling wines.

The style of Foradori's Teraldego is stunning and unique. The bouquet is of sweet black fruit, orange, chocolate, herbs and soil. On the palate the wines are graceful, focused and beautifully balanced, somehow refining a robust somewhat Syrah-like flavor profile of black fruit, cherry and plum, with a hint of chocolate. The tannins and acidity are perfectly integrated. She has single-handedly renewed interest in a previously little known varietal and her wines are in restaurants all over Italy.

Foradori's entry level wine is called simply Foradori (about $25) and is wonderful. Her flagship wine is called Granato, comes from her finest selection of grapes and is aged 12-15 months in used oak. It is spectacular, worth the $60 price tag. She also makes two single vineyard wines which are now just arriving in the U.S. I can't wait.

Nicoletta Bocca founded her winery in 1992. Since then she has raised the stakes for production of Dolcetto and there's simply no stopping her. She has amassed 16 acres of old vines (40-60 years old) nestled in the hills of Dogliani, an area gifted for long-lived wines with strong tannins that have a higher aptitude for aging and the ability to maintain freshness despite the evolution of flavors and complexity. She stresses the characteristics that come naturally from extraction during fermentation and aging in wood instead of the fruitiness and easy drinkability that this grapes has been known for....until now.

Her wines, beginning with her stunning entry level Valdiba ($16) and ending with her fabulous Dogliani ($27) are hugely intense with beautiful fruit (black cherry, plum blackberry) and floral notes. There is a very noticeable background of stone and mineral that marks her wines with a unique identity. I recently tasted a vertical of the Dogliani beginning with the 2003 and they were by far the best Dolcettos I've ever drunk.

While only in her twenties, the immensely talented and precocious Sicilian winemaker Arianna Occhipinti has charmed the world with her organically grown local varietals, namely Grillo, Frappato, and Nero D'Avola. She has taken the natural wine movement to dizzying new heights and there is as much fanfare about her unwavering dedication to producing terroir driven wines as there is the enjoyment of the resulting wines' grace and beauty. She has rapidly become Sicily's "rockstar" winemaker.

Occhipinti's entry level wines are called TAMI ($12-18), a joint project between her and some friends including her boyfriend, owner of Tami Wine Bar in nearby Siracusa. The TAMI IGT Grillo is one of the most aromatic wines imaginable with tangerine, jasmine tea, chalky minerals and figs leaping from the glass. On the palate there is ample fruit balanced by perfect acidity and brilliant minerality. Smelling the TAMI IGT Frappato is like walking in a ripe strawberry field. Beaujolais-like in body, there is sweet black cherry, blackberry and chocolate on the palate with a lively fresh acidity. It is a beautiful summertime red. The TAMI IGT Nero D'Avola is a soft, elegant expression of a varietal that can be bold and fruit forward. The nose is very aromatic with delicate notes of violets, sage and strawberries. The palate is extraordinarily elegant with layers of boysenberry, espresso and and licorice. There is amazing complexity for a medium-bodied wine. Finally, there is her Occhipinti SP68 IGT Rosso ($26), a blend of Frappato and Nero D'Avola. It is named for the road that goes by her estate. The wine combines the spiciness of Zinfandel with the earthiness of a Chianti, and possesses a zippy acidity that gives it an eccentric twist. This is an amazing wine, not to be missed if you can find it.

If you can find any of these wines, buy them while you can. They are going to get harder to find and more expensive as the reputations of these ladies continue to grow.