New book: Native Wine Grapes of Italy

[Gary_York]

I have thought about it. Who knows, maybe in the fall. All of the talk about the 2010s may be too much for me to resist.

[TomHill]

Just finished the Refosco family. Lots of different Rofoscos that are totally unrelated. But d’Agato does a very job
and breaking everything down into its little boxes. He seems very high on RefoscoNostrano, but I’ve never seen one
available.
The Refosco dal PeduncolaRosso (red peduncle) seems to be the most highly regarded. According to him, in Calif, “in the
last 20 yrs, there have been many new plantings of Refosco dal PeduncoloRosso.” So where the heck are the wines??
I’ve only tried the Mathiasson, which is extraordinary. He even refers to a TraderJoe’s Refosco from FamiliaNueva. Holy $hit!!
He seems big on the NewMexico Refosco. Of all things. I’m not convinced that Paolo d’Andrea’s Refosco is not Mondeuse.
Paola won’t respond to my inquiries.
Anyway, Refosco is a variety (in Friuli) that can make some extraordinary wines. This section is a very
good read…highly recommended.
Onward & upward to Trebbiano. That will be painful.
Tom

[g.colangelo]

@Roberto Rogness

I have a similar book (in Italian) published by an academic press in Italy. It has 900 varieties listed, each one with all the clones and synonyms on one double page display.

What book is it? I have the one published by Slow food:

http://store.slowfood.it/libri-slow-food-editore/guide-slow-food/guida-ai-vitigni-d-italia-2011-9788884992420-56.html

where about 600 varieties are listed. It’s well written and rather compact.
In Wine Grapes (J. Harding, J. Robinson, J. Vouillamoz) they list 377 autoctonous Italian varieties.

[Roberto_Rogness]

Vitigni d’Italia by Antonio Calò, Attilio Scienza and Angelo Costacurta. 2001 by Carlderini Edagricole

ISBN 88-206-4367-7

[g.colangelo]

@Roberto Rogness

Vitigni d’Italia by Antonio Calò, Attilio Scienza and Angelo Costacurta. 2001 by Carlderini Edagricole
ISBN 88-206-4367-7

Thank you. This is indeed serious academic stuff: Calò and Costacurta are from the “Istituto sperimentale per la viticoltura” in Conegliano Veneto, and Attilio Scienza is professor at Milan University. They are all mentioned for their work and appear in the acknowledgments in the slowfood book.

[Roberto_Rogness]

It’s actually pretty straightforward:

each section has color photos of the bunches, leaves and buds of the variety, a map of Italy with it’s range shaded in, a list of synonyms (including “errati” meaning false synonyms), a bit on its origin, a physical description of the plant including vine, leaves, bunches and berries then notes on what agricultural conditions it likes and does not like followed by a general description of the wine it makes including alcohol, acidity and ph ranges. A final notes section lists where it is used as a principal grape or in blends, and if sweet, sparkling or fortified versions are made.

Best € 100 I ever spent at VinItaly!

[TomHill]

Continue to slog thru this book grape variety after grape variety. It’s a very/very interesting read.
It’s a bit like reading thru an encyclopedia like I did in grade school when I discovered my parents bookshelf
filled w/ WorldBook Encyclopedias. But every now & then d’Agata will throw out a few bon mots that are real zingers.
It makes clear his disdain for Trebbiano Toscano and throws it on the junkpile of history, though reserving some praise for
some of the other Trebbianos. It’s clear that he thinks a lot of these obscure/near-extinct Italian varieties have some merit and
are worth saving…oftentimes on the flimsiest of tasting evidence.
Anyway…it’s still a great read.
Tom

Speaking of encyclopedias…do they still sell thos things??? I remember when I was little (not all that long ago I should point out),
there would be an encyclopedia salseman come to our front door almost once-a-month.

[TomHill]

I particularly liked this passage in his discussion of Carignano/Carignan:

@d'Agata

…in Tuscany, more than one producer has told me off the record that Carignano must was (or is?) often added (shall we say involuntary mistakes) to
many anemic Tuscan musts. Of course, Italian producers, thoroughly scared by the tough controls exercised by local authorities and the iron will of
their local politicians to do what’s right & best for the country and its wine-loving consumers, would never dream of doing such a thing.

All that’s missing is the or or .
Tom

[John_Morris]

I got my copy this week and began browsing today. I opened up randomly at carignano, then moved on to carricante, went to the cross-reference on cannonau and then moved to nerello mascalese, sangiovese, nebbiolo, primitivo and barbera.

It’s terrific – packed with information; lucidly written, with lots of entertaining asides; opinionated but also balanced.

A few quibbles: A more detailed table of contents would have made it more accessible (e.g., families listed for the grape families chapter; grape names for the long, long chapter on individual types). And he should have buried the citations in footnotes. Long strings of academic authors’ names in the body makes it hard to read the paragraphs on the research on origins.

But it will be an essential reference and, surprisingly for such a dense work, a joy to read.

@TomHill

Interestingly, the book is published by the Univ of Calif Press.

Are you surprised? They have a deep list of top titles on wine, many that they originated (as appears to be the case here) and others where they publish the American edition of works first published elsewhere.

[John_Morris]

@TomHill

I particularly liked this passage in his discussion of Carignano/Carignan:

@d'Agata

…in Tuscany, more than one producer has told me off the record that Carignano must was (or is?) often added (shall we say involuntary mistakes) to
many anemic Tuscan musts. Of course, Italian producers, thoroughly scared by the tough controls exercised by local authorities and the iron will of
their local politicians to do what’s right & best for the country and its wine-loving consumers, would never dream of doing such a thing.

All that’s missing is the or or .
Tom

Yes, I snorted at that paragraph myself!

[Bob_Hughes]

Yeah, this has become my go-to book on the night table for “bedtime reading”. I’ve already purchased three different producers (Gulfi, Donnafugata and Bonavita) based on Ian’s write-up’s as I start to enhance/improve my understanding of the various Sicilian producers, and that Donnafugata Pantelleria Passito Ben Rye’ was nothing short of awesome.

[Bob_Hughes]

Actually, to give credit where credit is due, now that I think about it, I’m also reading the Bill Nesto book on Sicilian wines that I mentioned earlier (link below) - this is also on my night table, and while much thinner than Ian’s book, is solely focused on Sicilian wines, so I may have actually read about the Bonavita Faro in Bill’s book, not Ian’s.

The World of Sicilian Wine: Nesto MW, Bill, Di Savino, Frances: 9780520266186:...

[Oliver_McCrum]

I am glad you liked the Faro, Bob. I can’t wait to drink it with a few years of bottle age.

(Disclaimer: I import the wine.)

[Loren_Sonkin]

I don’t know if this was posted already:

http://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2014/08/italy-s-weird-and-wonderful-wine-grapes

[Oliver_McCrum]

@Bob Hughes

How about that - they’ve determined that Vermentino and Pigato are the same grape. I feel like I’m going to school reading this book (and I mean that in a good way) .

Me too.

[John_Morris]

I should thank you, Oliver, for asking in an e-mail a month or two back if I’d read this. That prompted me to order it!

[Oliver_McCrum]

You’re welcome, John.

[Tim_Heaton]

Congratulations to Ian. I see he’s the VIA (Vin Italy Academy) Scientific Director http://www.vinitalyinternational.com/pressreleases/taste-excellence-italian-wines-sassicaia-roussin-de-morgex

[Oliver_McCrum]

@TomHill

@Oliver McCrum

@TomHill

Got my copy on Fri and now well into the book.
The book is packed w/ information, not just on specific grape varieties, but w/ more general
wine information. In fact, in can be a bit tedious in places.
…
Interestingly, the book is published by the Univ of Calif Press. At about $27 on Amazon, it’s a great buy.
Anywho…this is a highly recommended book for anyone w/ much interest in Italian wines.
Tom

Jancis Robinson’s book doesn’t describe well how wines made from the mentioned varieties should taste, an omission I hope they will correct in future editions. D’Agata’s book does a great job of telling you what the wines made from the grapes taste like. I think anyone who is really interested in Italian wines would find it useful.

Well…yeah, Oliver. That would, of course, double it in size and make a forklift an essential tool to read
the thing!!
D’Agata’s descriptions of what the wines taste like is one of the things I really like about the book. And, by & large,
I think he does a pretty good job of that…at least on the half-dozen grapes that I’ve read.
Tom

You need a fork-lift anyway, it’s a real door-stop.

I’m a huge Jancis fan, but I was disappointed by the Wine Grapes book; what is more important than the taste of the resulting wines? Everything else is academic detail.