From the Archives, Iconic Italian Wines: A Fantastic Tasting in London

BY IAN D'AGATA

February 23rd, 2024  

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"This past February 6, in a truly remarkable wine tasting held in London and organized by Astrum Wines (one of the UK’s best wine importers and a consummate Italian wine specialist), I was lucky enough to partake in a moment of truly rarefied wine tasting excellence. The wines in the tasting were all either excellent or downright spectacular. Their intrinsic level of goodness resulted from the perfect storm of wine attributes, including first and foremost there being only wines from truly great vintages (a common ploy when trying ti impress people is using a famous name wine from a horrific vintage; but to Astrum’s credit and their willingness to go the extra mile for their clients and fans, no famous wines from lousy vintages such as 2003 were included in this tasting). Almost every wine featured in this masterclass can be considered benchmark for its grape variety or wine category; and even those that don’t really fit into that mould are characterized by specific traits or terroir characteristics to make them unique in some ways.

For example, there can be no doubt that Miani’s Ribolla Gialla Pettarin is not just the best Ribolla Gialla wine made in Italy, but an argument can be made that it may well be Italy’s best white wine, period (Gravner’s is just as good, but is a completely different wine such that a fair, even logical, comparison between the two is impossible). Similarly, there is no better producer of Greco wines in Italy than Pietracupa: normally, the best Greco wines of Italy are those that sport the Greco di Tufo denomination, but in the case of owner’s Sabino Loffredo’s Greco G wine, the denomination is inconsequential. The Pietracupa 2010 Greco G may very well be not just the best Greco wine he has ever made, but the best wine period. On that note, there is no doubt that the Oddero 2016 Barolo Riserva Vignarionda is just that: in other words, the best Barolo Vignarionda ever made by the winery, perhaps even the best wine Oddero has ever made (and they have made quite a few since the nineteenth century, so that’s saying something). Tenuta di Trinoro’s 2013 Tenuta di Trinoro Toscana Rosso, is a perfect example of a Supertuscan made in a cooler year such that it boasts less of the viscous opulent flesh this wine is capable of showcasing in spades, but boasts instead supreme elegance and lightness of being. Despite it being made with the two Cabernets (mostly Cab Franc, in fact), Merlot and a dollop of Petit Verdot, it has nonetheless excellent ripeness levels and broadcasts what the relatively little-known and little-used farmland around the small town of Sarteano in southern Tuscany can deliver. About the only thing I have to add is that it is highly reductive to call Trinoro’s wine (or that of Tua Rita, or Petrolo, or Castello del Terriccio, for example) as simply “Supertuscnas”, independently of all the good that that name conjures up. This is because just about any Cab-Merlot wine made in Tuscany can be referred to as a “Supertuscan” but there is a quality chasm separating the best from the average and weaker wines that benefit from that monicker. The Speri 1988 Amarone della Valpolicella Vigneto Sant’Urbano is a masterpiece. Everyone reading this article has probably tried Amarone once in their life, if not more; but truth is, for such a famous wine, not all examples are as well-balanced and easy to drink as they ought to be. Speri’s1988 wine (an excellent vintage) is drinking splendidly right now: it finds itself in a sweet spot that makes it at once extremely velvety, delicious and irresistible, though remarkably relatively youthful and age-worthy. Speaking of “balance”, no word describes better, and then some, the Ronchi di Cialla 1983 Verduzzo di Cialla Colli Orientali del Friuli, a superb sweet wine. Verduzzo Friulano (not to be confused with a similarly-named variety called Verduzzo Trevigiano) is a very underrated Italian white grape, that can give easygoing classically dry white wines but also magically rich and luscious stickies (usually made with air-dried grapes). The 1983 vintage was an especially great one in Friuli Venezia Giulia (the reds were very fine too that year) and this Verduzzo wine showcases this fact admirably: it’s a wine that shows off the tannic heft typical of the variety, but at the same time its just as typical deep and complex aromas and flavours of almond, marzipan, ripe orchard fruit (with a whiplash of tropical fruit and chestnut honey added in for good measure). The Produttori del Barbaresco 2013 Barbaresco Riserva Rabajà offers nice insight into the exact quality of the 2013 vintage in Barolo and Barbaresco (an underrated vintage, in my opinion), with a wine that harkens stylistically back to the many great wines made during the 1980s and even the 1970s, in much cooler times than today’s days irrevocably marked by climate change. That cool climate is evident in the Poggio Scalette 2010 Il Carbonaione Alta Valle del Greve, a Sangiovese wine made by one of Italy’s chief consultant winemakers, Vittorio Fiore. The Ruffolo area where the grapes used to make this wine grow is characterized by a specific biotype of Sangiovese, known as Sangiovese di Lamole. It’s a Sangiovese that gives much bigger wines than usual and that are successfully produced even in the area’s cold climate conditions, where Sangiovese never ripens fully; instead, the Sangiovese di Lamole appears to manage to do so. In fact, I think there has existed quite a bit of confusion on this subject in the past, as the majority of old vines planted in the Lamole area seventy-eighty years ago were actually of a distinct variety called Sangiovese Forte or Sanforte, one that is much better suited to the Lamole climate than Sangiovese. This is because it not only ripens well despite the cooler climate but because it delivers a wine that is at the same time muscular and tannic, but also smooth and fruity. The presence of Sanforte, in smaller or larger degrees helps explain why the “Sangiovese wines” of the area look, smell and taste different from more typical Sangiovese wines, without needing to figure out other reasons as to why that may be. Last but not least, the Castello Romitorio 2014 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva is a very good wine from the excellent, but admittedly slightly overrated 2004 vintage. Made with Sangiovese grapes that are planted at the highest altitudes of the denomination, Romitorio’s Brunellos are always marked by a slightly herbal and high-acid mouthfeel that helps deliver a sense of juiciness and freshness that is uncommon in most Brunellos made today (even those from the northern-facing reaches of the denomination)."