Italy, the land of unusual wines

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sun, 06/18/2006 3:35 PM  |  Life

Yohan Handoyo, Contributor, Jakarta

If you are tired of drinking the same wine over and over again, you might want to consider trying an Italian drop. This beautiful country produces some of the most interesting, unusual -- and of course delicious -- wines in the world.

While other countries are proud of their classic grape varieties, such as cabernet sauvignon, merlot, pinot noir, chardonnay, sauvignon blanc and so on, Italy is proud of native grapes that seldom do well outside Italy, such as the nebbiolo, barbera, nasiola, trebbiano and corvina. Some regions in Italy are also quite famous for their wines produced from classic grape varieties.

The other thing that makes Italian wines so famous is their wine making paradox: At one extreme you'll see wine makers who stick to traditions that can be traced back to the Roman Empire and at the other you'll find the ""rebellious"" wine makers who are constantly seeking new ways to improve their wines.

This was illustrated to me recently when I met three Italian wine personalities at Cheese and Caviar Plaza Indonesia, Alberto Chiarlo, Stefano Tommasi and Antonio Zaccheo.

Antonio is a living example of the rebellious Tuscan wine makers who started the ""Super Tuscan"" movement in the early 1970s that changed the global market perception of Chianti wines. Before the 1970s, traditional Chianti was normally perceived as low-quality, everyday-wine, due to over production and over cropping, until some innovative winemakers started to ignore tradition and began to make wines of better quality. Marchese Mario Incisa della Rocchetta started it all by making wines from cabernet sauvignon (not from sangiovese, the official grape of Tuscany) that he got directly from Chateau Lafite. His wine, Sassicaia, is still a huge success today.

By then, it was a total chaos in Tuscany, as wine makers started to plant anything they wanted and do anything they believed would bring their wines to the new quality level. Antonio too, took a radical departure from the common traditional wine making practices when he started to mix sangiovese with classic grape varieties, as well as relying more on bottle aging than barrel aging.

But it all paid off, eventually. I tasted Antonio's Carpineto Farnito Cabernet Sauvignon, a gorgeous, full bodied wine, loaded with blackcurrant and blackberry, wrapped in fine, sweet tannin and bursting with power in every sip. The same wine from the 1995 vintage was listed in Wine Spectator's The Top 100 Wines of 1998.

The other wine of his is the Carpineto Dogajolo 2004, made from a blend of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon. This Super Tuscan wine has plenty of red fruit character and is very fresh with a floral bouquet, good acidity and ripe tannin. I bought one Jeroboam of this and it only made me a few dollars lighter.

From the other side of the paradox, I met Stefano Tommasi from Villa Girardia, well known wine producers from Verona who have been putting their faith in the tradition for more than 300 years. In the mind of Italian wine lovers, Verona is an important region because it is the birth place of Soave (a light, fresh, and smooth white wine), Prosecco (a sparkling wine), Valpolicella and Amarone (both unique red wines).

Both Amarone and Valpolicella are made from a blend of three grape varieties: corvine, rondinella, and molinara. Both are made according to a tradition that can be traced back to the Roman Empire. Yet both of them have totally different personalities. Amarone (meaning ""big, bitter one"") is big, complex wine with an exceptional depth of flavor because it is normally harvested very late and before the grapes are pressed they are air-dried for 10-12 weeks. This causes the grapes to shrivel, thus concentrating the sugar and flavor. What you get is an utterly amazing, concentrated, powerful, yet elegant dry red wine like Vila Girardi Amarone della Valpolicella Classico.

Valpolicella, on the other hand, is the lighter version of Amarone, although it is made from the same grape varieties. The Villa Girardi Valpolicella Classico Superiore 2003 that I tasted was very pleasant, reminiscent of red cherry and dried spices. It's a smooth and pleasant red wine that I would never hesitate to open anytime.

The other person I met was Alberto, the marketing director of Michele Chiarlo winery, who perfectly represents the proud traditionalist. Talking to him is like talking to a Burgundy vigneron who stresses the importance of terroir in his every sentence. To Alberto, no good (Barolo) wine can be made if there's too much human intervention in the process. The wine should reflect the location where the vine grows and the fact it is a product of Mother Nature. The wine maker is just a facilitator for the ""magic"" to take place.

His Tortoniano Barolo 2001 is a true reflection of the specific terroir of La Morra. If you think all Barolo is always brutally tannic and muscular like I used to, Tortoniano can show you how elegant and feminine a Barolo can be. This is possible because the soil in La Morra is characterized by sediment, clay, marl and sandstone, which give this Barolo its elegant personality and complex fragrance of sweet tobacco, anise, and spices. On the palate the wine really shows the lush and elegant harmony of silky tannin, spices, ripe black fruit and vibrant acidity. Amazing!

On my way back home after tasting all those beautiful wines, I suddenly realized why Italians often say ""La Dolce Vita"". Hmmm..

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.