Mildly interesting article by CourtneySchiessl in VinePair about the recovery of Schioppettino in Friuli: VinePair:Schioppettino
The article gives (correctly) credit to Dina & Paola Rapuzzi/Ronchi di Cialla for the resurrection of the grape. But it overlooks the contributions of Benito and Giannola Nonino for pushing the effort to revive Schioppettino along.
A more complete story can be found in Vinous by Galloni: Vinous:Schioppettino
Her characterization of Schioppettino as like a cross between Syrah and CabFranc and a gateway to Italian wine for French loyalists strikes me as a bit of a stretch. If anything, I find Schioppettino to resemble Refosco dal PeduncolaRosso more than anything…but whatever.
Anyway, two interesting articles on one of my favorite grapes.
And yet, not a word, not even a footnote, in either article about the visionary who first produced, bottled, and sold wine made from that noble grape, and labeled as such, grown right smack dab here in the good old USofA. I tell ya…
Haven’t seen you in this little corner of Cyberspace for awhile, John. Drop in more often.
Yeah…they should have mentioned you. We’re tasting the OrsiFamily tonight. Hope you can track down another source.
Tom
I think that describing Schioppettino as like a cross between Syrah and CF is pretty apt. If she is trying to get French loyalists into Italian wine, I really don’t think it would make sense to describe the variety using another variety almost as obscure as the first one. Although I, too, find the fruit flavors in Schioppettino very similar to Refosco, I often find Refoscos much bigger, brooding and muscular, whereas Schioppettinos tend to be lighter, brighter and crunchier in style - quite similar to Loire Cabernet Francs of Crozes-Hermitage Syrah.
Furthermore, I think that the noticeably peppery character in Schioppettino is very similar to that in cool climate Syrah. In that sense, likening Schioppettino to CF and Syrah makes quite a lot of sense to me.
While it may not be a completely crazy comparison, I’ve always found it funny (especially since working in a restaurant with an all-Italian list) how pervasive the tendency among writers, retailers, & somms is to compare Italian varieties to French in order to ease people into the the unknown. The daily “what do you have that’s like a Pinot/Merlot/Syrah?” question still reverberates in my nightmares…
This might come as a shock to you, but most of those French varieties are nowadays pretty international, whereas practically all of the Italian varieties have mostly stayed within the borders of Italy - save for some freak plantings in California and Australia…
So they are are not comparing to French varieties, but varieties that are best known by the public.
Right…that was the point. Not really a shock, just amusing that, as Tom mentioned, the comparison is a bit of a stretch, but gives people a frame of reference.