Let’s talk about Some Italian sparkling wines.

From west to east, first comes Asti Spumante, from the town of Asti in Piedmont, probably the most traditional one, the one whose corks had popped into the air on New Year’s eve for decades in the majority of Italian homes, no matter the social class. Asti Spumante is made using the Moscato Bianco grape and originally was processed the traditional method (Champagne techniques) but transitioned to the Martinotti-Charmat (tank method) which better preserves the aromatic richness of the Moscato grape.

Then there is Franciacorta, which takes its name from a sub region of Lombardy, in the province of Brescia. Franciacorta is produced from three varieties: Chardonnay, Pinot Nero and Pinot Bianco. It’s the elegant and precious Italian traditional method that showed the world those great sparkling wines can be produced outside of France, too.

Trento DOC, from Trentino, nowadays successfully follows its footsteps. Trent DOC is a high-quality traditional method sparkling produced from Chardonnay, Pinot Nero with Chardonnay playing the dominant role. They can also be supplemented with Pinot Bianco or Meunier.

Finally comes Prosecco, which is produced in almost the whole Veneto region and part of Friuli Venezia Giulia. Prosecco is the name of the wine and Glera is the name of the grape that is dominant in the sparkling that is made the by Martinotti-Charmat method. It may not be the most traditional or refined one, but it is surely the most popular at the moment and the one that is being produced and sold the most at present. The highest quality and most famous Proseccos being produced in in the Cartizze region.

And yet, that’s not all.

In Monti Lessini, a district in the province of Verona, to the east of the Lake Garda and practically halfway between Franciacorta and Prosecco they still grow and produce wine from a lesser known autochthonous variety called Durella.

What is Durella?

Durella is an Italian autochthonous grape variety, known for its high acid, originated and grown on the Lessini Mountains area, which more or less means to the north / north-east of Valpolicella. There are two DOCs within the Monti Lessini district base on Durella, Monti Lessini DOC & Lessini Durello DOC.

From the Durella grape they produce Durello sparkling wine from the Lessini Durello DOC.  As it often happens with wines, its name has a popular origin. It comes from the adjective “duro”, that means “hard”, and refers to the thickness of the peel of its berries and to its capability to stand hardships and, therefore, to provide regular harvests and pretty good yields.

The popular origin of the name is also the reason why the grape variety is often called Durello (with a mutation from feminine to masculine gender) as the wine itself. Although it’s not an error to talk about Durello (masculine) variety, you can’t refer to the wine with the noun Durella (feminine).

And what is Durello?

Proven that it is a wine with a long history, it was found that it has been produced since the 18th century. Lessini Durello is an expressive sparkling white wine with a minimum of 85% Durella and made in two versions; Spumante, which is made the Martinotti-Charmat method and Spumante Riserva, which is made traditional method.

What’s special with Durello Sparkling wine?

The grape and the winemaking style, as it often happens when it’s about wines, play a pivotal role, but what’s really different, here, is the land.

Lessini Mountains have a volcanic soil that provides the grapes with a distinctive minerality, that can’t be found elsewhere.

The wines are characterized with bigger structure and acidity than Prosecco with recognizable honey, orchard fruit with aromas and flavors complimented by lemony and intense mineral presence. The wine is less creamy than Franciacorta but better acidity and lift. This all makes for great aging potential.

Best Durello sparkling wines are those who rested on their yeasts long enough to allow them counterbalance primary aromas of the berries, so that the wine develops its full aromatic potential.

A couple of my favorite producers:

Sandro de Bruno

Torre dei Vescovi

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Among Italian wine region, Tuscany surely deserves a special place, thanks to the several top quality cellars producing long lasting, full-bodied, renowned red wines.

One of the wines that made the myth of Tuscan wine is Brunello di Montalcino, which also is, together with Barolo from Piedmont, the most long-living Italian wine, as it can age for decades.

What is Brunello made of?

Until the XIX century, Brunello di Montalcino was thought to be produced from an autochthonous, unique, grape variety, but in 1879 a group of scientists found out that it was a clone of Sangiovese.

The wrong belief about the uniqueness of the variety from which Brunello is made from was probably due to the particular expression Sangiovese has in the area. Local special climate and soil, in other words, give the grapes a character they don’t get elsewhere.

Brunello di Montalcino, indeed, is made of 100% Sangiovese and no other grape variety is allowed in its production, therefor its roundness, complexity and variety of aromas all come from a fully developed single kind of grape.

Where is Brunello produced?

As its same name says, Brunello comes from Montalcino, a medieval small town in the province of Siena, by the border with the province of Grosseto. This means that Montalcino lies in the southern part of Tuscany, only 200 kilometers to the north of Rome and only 40 kilometers as the crow flies from the Mediterranean Sea.

Which are the main Brunello di Montalcino production guidelines?

Brunello is a DOCG wine, which is the highest level for an Italian wine. Yet, it is a relatively recent DOGC wine, as the wine received the “denominations” in 1998.

According to its production guidelines, grapes from which Brunello di Montalcino will be made must come from vineyards growing on slopes only, and on soils that can be dated back between Cretaceous and Pliocene ages.

The maximum allowed altitude is 600 meters on sea level and any forcing is forbidden, including rescue irrigation.

Brunello must age for at least 24 months in oak barrels - no matter their size, there’s no need for them to be actual barriques - and then at least four months in bottle (that become six if it is Brunello “Riserva”) before being marketed.

Brunello di Montalcino can only be marketed after January the 1^st of the fifth year after the harvest (the sixth when it’s about “Riserva”). This means that wines from grapes harvested in Fall 2015 will be sold from January 1^st 2020 on.

What is Brunello di Montalcino Riserva?

As it happens with many DOCG wines, according to production guidelines, it is forbidden to put on Brunello bottles misleading labels, for instance containing adjectives that somehow suggest a special, superior quality, like, indeed, “superior”, “selected”, “fine”, “aged”, “picked” and so on.

When we se the word “Riserva” on a bottle of Brunello di Montalcino, it means that that bottle comes from a special reserve, allowed and guaranteed by law, that aged longer in bottle.

With which dishes should be paired Brunello di Montalcino?

Brunello has a wide, composite and complex bouquet, as well as full and elegant body.

This makes of it a perfect wine to be tasted alone, too, but it is traditionally paired with intense-flavored meat dishes, even with those dressed with truffle, and with tasty, aged cheeses, especially the pungent ones produced in Tuscany and Umbria.

Suggested Producers:

Altesino BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO D.O.C.G. RISERVA

San Polo BRUNELLO DI MONTALCINO RISERVAPoggio 

Antico Brunello di Montalcino D.O.C.G. Riserva

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The 25th of December has become an occasion to spend time with beloved person - usually gathering around a sumptuously decked table - even in countries where they don’t celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday, so let’s figure out what Christmas represents in Italy, where they basically “invented” the Christmas meal, or - at least - take it very seriously.

Strange but true, even if Italian Christmas culinary traditions are rich, various and deep-rooted all along the boot-shaped peninsula, Italians are surprisingly inadequate when it’s about to elect a wine to be traditionally consumed at Christmas.

How can it be?

Remember, Italy is the country of variety. This makes a cornucopia of gastronomic treasures of it but also an unbelievably disunited country under several points of view.

“Cenone” and “Pranzo di Natale”: before and after the holy night

The main distinction in Italian Christmas traditions consists in the time of the same Christmas meal.

In southern regions they use to have a rich dinner - they call it “cenone”, that literally means “big dinner” - with fish and seafood dishes on December 24th, after which the gathered family goes out to attend the Mass at midnight.

In the northern regions, on the other hand, they traditionally have a sumptuous lunch on December 25th, usually consuming filling pasta and meat dishes. They simply call it “pranzo di Natale” (Christmas lunch) but it’s far from being as inoffensive as its name suggests.

Every region, every town and basically every family has its own traditional Christmas menu, usually composed of local traditional dishes, prepared every year according to particular, family recipes, that are handed down from one generation to another. This means that wines consumed on Christmas can vary a lot from area to area, with the only common peculiarity of being of a superior quality than usual.

In Piedmont they uncork Barolo and eat “ravioli del plin” and braised beef, while in the area around Verona they drink Amarone with risotto and game.

By Rome they can make a toast with some high quality Grechetto, while grated scallops fill the room with their attracting aroma, and by Naples glasses are filled with Falanghina, Greco di Tufo, Fiano di Avellino and Biancolella, while dishes are full to the brim with mussels, spaghetti with clams and codfish.

Happy Christmas (meal is over)

Once the meal is over - be it the dinner or the lunch - Italians have present, “globalized” traditional desserts.

They usually already have had local traditional Christmas desserts, like struffoli in Naples (fried small pieces of sweet dough kept together in a donut shape with honey and candied fruit) and presnitz in Trieste (a cake of Austro-Hungarian origin made of a sort of phyllo dough filled with a troubling quantity of dried fruits and liqueur), but at the very end of the meal they have a slice of one of the two most representative Christmas cakes: panettone (originally from Milan) or pandoro (from Verona).

Both these two cakes can nowadays be purchased in supermarkets for a few euros (even if the artisan ones produced in bakeries and pastry shops are still far better products) and are sold every year in tons.

Together with these cakes, for some still inexplicable reason, Italians drink sparkling wines.

All I want for Christmas is bubbles

Although Italy produces great sparkling wines that can be enjoyed throughout the meal, be them champenoise methods from Franciacorta or Prosecco di Valdobbiadene and Asti Spumante made by Charmat-Martinotti method, Italians (at least, many of them) seem to lose their minds on Christmas, and they pair them with panettone and pandoro.

Asti Spumante is a sweet sparkling wine that is traditionally drunk at the end of a Christmas meal more or less all over the country, thanks to its sugar contents, that makes it go just barely decently with cakes. Its bubbles still make the pairing appear like a forced marriage, because neither pandoro nor panettone are fatty enough to stand up to them.

As an alternative, some kinds of Prosecco are also popular, because this sparkling wine is bottled in three different kinds, according to its sugar remains, and the so called “dry” version can contain up to 32 grams of sugar per liter, which makes a pretty sweet wine of it.

Unfortunately, the marriage with panettone and pandoro is not happier than the one made by Asti Spumante, but it doesn’t seem to stop Italians from perpetrating this barbarity.

Moreover, some also insist in pluming their papillas by pairing desserts with brut, non-sweet, sparkling wines, too.

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