Do you know what slow wine is? I didn’t, until I went to the January 28th 2013 VinItaly wine event, in NYC. While I perused the hundreds (literally) of wine selections from Italy, I learned that “Vino Slow” (‘slow wine’ are wines that have a high organoleptic quality (in other words, involving the senses including taste, color, odor, and feel), which combine characteristics of the land they originate from. These wines have a sginature, and Slow Wine seeks to find those wines that are not mass produced and that are healthier and tastier for you and better for the environment. Slow wine isn’t necessarily organic wine, but more significantly, wine that is made with a focus on achieving the highest quality given the circumstances. The efforts in growing, making and appreciating this wine reflect that quality is valued more than convenience.
When you go to a massive exhibition of wines for tasting (and VinItaly featured close to 80 different wineries with several bottles of wine to taste at each table), you either have to possess the proverbial “hollow leg” or make use of a spit bucket. Barring that, you have to chose the wines you taste, very carefully. Dozens and dozens of wineries and hundreds of wine all presented for your review, under one roof, is exciting; but it is also very daunting.
I chose to taste only sparkling wines as Italy produces more of these than nearly anyone else in Europe, and they are often inexpensive and celebratory, without breaking the budget. The entire list of exhibitors at VinItaly is listed at the end of this article.
I decided to focus primarily on sparkling wines, such as Prosecco.
I always thought of Prosecco as the poor person’s sparkling wine that was usually very sweet, and of course, only from Italy. I was right about the latter, and very, very wrong about the former! Prosecco, from Italy, comes in a dizzying variety of types to tempt every palate from sweet to very brut, and from nearly clear, to amber, to rose. There are sparkling wines from all over the world, but Champagne can only be called champagne if it is made from grapes grown, processed and bottled in the Champagne region of France. Everything else is sparkling wine. That doesn’t mean that a sparkling wine that isn’t defined as Champagne isn’t as good or better than a champagne, it is merely a way to designate and control the type of wine that comes from a specific region. Like Champagne, Procecco can be designated as such only if it is crafted in a specific region of Italy called the Veneto region. If the same grapes and same process are used, but they’re not in Veneto, the wine is a sparkling variety, but it isn’t Prosecco. Some of the other, popular varieties of Italian wine include Lambrusco from Northern Italy’s Emilia-Romagna region, Barbera D’asti, Asti and Brachetto from the Piedmont region, Phileo, Phileo Rose and Oltreno Cruase from Lombardy,
That isn’t the only difference between Champagne, Prosecco and other sparkling wines. They are defined in strict ways, with the definitions placed on it by country produced in very specific ways. Some other differences include aging and pricing. Prosecco, for example, is usually produced using the Charmat method, in which the secondary fermentation takes place in stainless steel tanks, making the wine less expensive to produce. The rules for the DOCG Prosecco Valdobbiadene also allow the use of the Metodo Classico: secondary fermentation in the bottle. Prosecco is mainly produced as a sparkling wine in either the fully sparkling (spumante) or lightly sparkling (frizzante, gentile) varieties. Prosecco Spumante that has undergone a full secondary fermentation, is the more expensive variety.
The grape variety used in Prosecco is Glera. Luckily, the amount of Prosecco available to the consumer is large and varied by type and price. The sparkling variants may contain some Pinot bianco or Pinot grigio wine. Depending on their sweetness, in accordance with the EU Sweetness of wine Regulations for Terms used to indicate sweetness of sparkling wine, Proseccos are labelled “Brut” (up to 12 grams per litre of residual sugar), “Extra Dry” (12–17 g/l) or “Dry” (17–32 g/l)
If all this is too technical, just remember that wine preferences are highly subjective. While Americans seem to enjoy sweeter varieties, I personally like very dry wine. Among the dozens of Prosecco wines I tasted were a few standouts. For example, Prosecco from Casa Vinicola Zonin, with 11% alcohol by volume, is made of 100% Glera grapes. It is crisp and moderately bubbly, and works will with most foods, as long as they are not very strongly flavored or spicy. You may be able to detect a slight almond note that is a Prosecco singature. I also liked Zonin’s Baccorosa, a sparkling rose that is just 7% alcohol by volume with a deep rose tint that makes it a nice alternative to a more alcoholic beverage. Neither of these is really sweet, but it works so well with desserts, or on it’s own, or with some fruit floating in it as a warm weather refresher. You might, if you sniff carefully, notice some musky and rose notes. These are just a few of the Zonin wines (they have plenty of “still” or non sparkling wines too). The wines were really good. I also have to mention that the men of Casa Vincola Zonin family have been vintners since 1821 and they’re all really good looking.
I also liked PetaloRosa Manzoni Moscato Spumante, a rose tinted sparkling extra dry wine from Villa Alme. This wine from Gairine, Trevino Italy is fermented in stainless steel tanks and is 11.50% by volume. This wine is nice on it’s own, or served with fish or little nibbles in general. You can smell a hint of rose, and the slightly sweet wine is a good choice for those who generally don’t like wine…you may win them over with PetaloRose Manzoni Moscato Spumante. This is a perfect choice for a girls get-together, showers, or even a wedding or anniversary celebration.
Itlay is most famous for some of the non-sparkling wines they produce throughout the country. These vary so widely in type and price, that I can’t even begin to list all the possibilities here. But just for argument’s sake, among the non sparkling wines I tasted at VinItaly that I particularly liked was the Castello di Monsanto’s Nemo I/G/T, a wine from Tuscany made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, sourced from an estate vineyard nearly 850 feet above sea level, and farmed to provide low yield, high quality grapes. The wine is aged 18 months in one-year-old French barrels, and then left to rest in the bottle for another year before it is released. This deep ruby red tinted wine has notes of black currant, black cherry and even a hint of rose. Another standout are the wines from Arnaldo-Caprai from Montefalco, awarded the Wine Enthusiast’s 2012 European Winery of the Year. Their wines are limited production, and include grapes indigenous to the Umbria region of Italy. This is really a wine you might want to cellar for a while.
Wine, like food, fragrance or just about anything else you might try in life, is highly subjective, and the wines I have just mentioned are simply some that in my memory, were unusual. That doesn’t take anything away from the hundreds of other wines that were presented at this VinItaly showcase. For first time ever Slow Food Editore, the publisher of the Slow Wine Guide, an English guide to Italian wines, collaborated with Vinitaly International to create a joint showcase with two days of Italian wine tasting from 15 Italian regions. If you are interested in trying Italian wine from different regions and with different taste profiles, the opportunities lies in your closest liquor or wine shop, where you will find Italian wines in every type and price to suit your interests with wines ready to drink right now.
Below is a list of the exhibitors at the January VinItaly event. You might want to ask your local wine or liquor shop about some of these producers!
WINERIES REPRESENTED AT VINITALY:
– Agrilandia Soc. Agr. A r.l.
– Amastuola Soc. Agr.*
– Az. Agr. Tenuta Il Biancospino*
– Azienda Vitivinicola Villa Almè
– Ca’ di Rajo*
– Cantina Colli Euganei S.c.a.
– Cantina Due Palme
– Cantina Sant’Isidoro*
– Caparra e Siciliani Cantina
Coop A r.l.
– Giordano Vini
– Menegolli*
– Mezzacorona
– Sorrento Nature S.r.l.*
– Unaprol
– Valentina Cubi*
– Yes!Grapes Consorzio Export
Italia del Vino Consorzio
– Casa Vinicola Zonin
– Ferrari F.lli Lunelli
– Gruppo Italiano Vini
– Ca’ del Bosco
– Feudo Zirtari
– Lamole di Lamole
– Tenuta Sassoregale
– Terrelìade
– Sartori Casa Vinicola
Consorzio
Tutela Prosecco DOC
– Azienda Astoria Vini
– Azienda La Tordera
– Azienda Tenuta S. Anna –
Genagricola S.p.A.
– Azienda Vinicola Serena
– Azienda Villa Sandi
– Distilleria Bottega
Consorzio Tutela Soave
– Cantina del Castello
– Cantina di Gambellara
– Cantina di Monteforte
– Cantina di Soave
– Cantine Riondo
– El Vegro
– Gini
– Marcato
– Montetondo
– Villa Mattielli
IMPORTERS
Banfi Vintners
– Casa Vinicola Sartori
– Castello Banfi
– Cecchi
Barterhouse
– Conte Guicciardini
– Pasetti
– Vallerosa Bonci
Biagio Cru & Estate Wines
Domenico Valentino
– Az. Agr. Sobrero Francesco
– Castello di Verduno
– D’Angelo
– Giardini Arimei
– Massoferrato
– Monteforche
– Olianas
– Orsolani
– Poderi Angelini
– Ronco dei Tassi
– Terralba
– Travignoli
– Valentini
Folio Fine Wine Partners
– Arnaldo Caprai
– Attems
– Luce della Vite
– Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi
Opici Wines
– Carpineto
– Cesari
– Monteverro
Palm Bay International
– Bertani
– Cavit/Alta Luna
– Col d’Orcia
– Ferrari
– Feudi di San Gregorio
– Fontanafredda
– Mazzei
– Planeta
– Rocca delle Macie
– Sella & Mosca
– Travaglini
PortoVino
– Antica Masseria Venditti
– Belisario
– Caves Cooperatives
de Donnas
– Venturini Baldini
– Vigneti Massa
Vinifera Imports
– D’Alessandro
Vision Wine & Spirits
– Bellenda
– Jacopo Biondi Santi
