I’ll be rounding out my features this month on the Emilia Romagna and Liguria wine regions with a focus on the Rossesegrape. In the 10 years I’ve been writing Vino Travels I’ve only featured a wine made from this grape once and never really discussed the grape so let’s learn more.
These wines are lighter in body with beautiful fragrant aromatics. They have lively acidity and express a fruit driven profile that is fresh with some pepper and spice notes along with a saline character, influenced by the nearby sea.
Rossese occupies a small piece of the Ligurian vineyards, only about 200 acres, so production is small and harvesting is challenging on the steep, terraced vineyards. All the work is done by hand as using machinery is not an option due to the structure of the land. It may be a challenge tolocate some of these wines, but that makes itall the more fun to try and explore either on a visit to Liguria or ifyou’re lucky enough to stumble upon a bottle.
Although I don’t have a specific wine to share this weekI’mreverting back to a feature on the native grapes Liguria I wrote a few years back when I shared the 2017 Danila Pisano Rossese di Dolceaqua DOC.
Next week I’m taking a quick jump back to Toscana since I had some unforeseen circumstances happen and never got to share a virtual tasting I attended in late spring focused on the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano grape hosted by the Consorzio and guest speaker Antonio Galloni.
Liguria
is one of the wine regions I don’t write about too often on here just
due to the opportunity of not trying wines from there too often.
Earlier this summer I attended some tastings in Boston including the Gambero Rosso event and tried a variety of unique grapes from Liguria. The grapes included pollera nera, cruvin, rossese di dolceacqua and good old vermentino and sangiovese. Lets dig into the region and these Ligurian wines that await exploration.
LunaeBosoni
Lunae Bosoni is only about a couple miles from Tuscany between the areas of Ortonovo and CastenuovaMagra. Five generations of the Bosoni
family are currently operating the winery today. Lunae Bosoni is one of the larger producers of Liguria. What I loved
discovering about this winery is their proximity to Massa Carrara in
Tuscany. This is where my mothers part of the family hails from and I had the opportunity to go there on my honeymoon. If you aren’t familiar with this area
they are known for their marble shipped all over the world. As you
drive closer the mountains look like they’re covered with snow, but its all marble. We took a tour inside. Amazing!
Tour inside the marble caves of Massa Carrara
The Bosoni
family owns 85 hectares with additional land that they partially lease
as well as their work with other small growers. The name LunaeBosoni stems from the ancient Roman city “Portus Lunae”
meaning “port of the moon”. The winery takes pride in their vermentino
as well as working with other local red grapes of the area including massareta, pollera nera and sangiovese.
Pics sourced from Montcalm Imports
I tasted the 2018 Colli di Luni Vermentino Etichetta Nera and their 2015 Colli di Luni Rosso Niccolo. The Etichetta
Nera is made of 100% vermentino and goes through a cold maceration for
12 hours that lends to a richer wine with more complexities. The grapes
are sourced from 35+ year old vines. This is considered the winery’s
flagship wine. The nose reminded me of gewurztraminer with its aromatics. Round, soft, clean with apples flavors on the palate. This wine is done in all stainless steel spending about 3 months on the lees. Just beautiful. 13.5% ABV SRP $21
The 2015 Colli di Luni Rosso Niccolo is made of 70% sangiovese with 15% pollera nera and 15% merlot. The goal is to eventually replace the merlot and make it 30% pollera nera. Pollera nera is an old vine from the 12th
century that has been rediscovered. You will find it only in Liguria
that I am aware of. I appreciate the work that wineries like LunaeBosoni do to reinvigorate these ancient grapes and prevent them from extinction. Pollera nera is a thin skinned grape like pinot nero. This wine spends about 12 months in barrique with about 6 months in the bottle. The wine is named after Pope Niccolo that was born in the nearby town of Sarzana. I loved the structure of this wine, the ripe cherries with herbal notes and hints of pepper. 13.5% ABV SRP $19
Punta Crena
Two other producers that stood out mostly because of the uniqueness of the grapes. This tasting was the first time I had a cruvin, or at least from what I can remember. Punta Crena
is owned by the Ruffino family that have been caring for the vineyards
for 500 years. It is today run by 4 siblings of the family. The winery
is located in the tiny village of Varigotti.
Located only about 1200 meters from the sea the breezes coming off the
Ligurian Sea definitely moderate the climate here for the grapes. Punta
Crena works with some unique grapes very unfamiliar to myself including crovino, mataossu and barbarossa.
Picture sourced from Kermit Lynch
Crovino is a grape that is rather difficult to work with and produces very small yields. I believe that Punta Crena is the only winery that actually grows this grape. In local dialect cruvin means to fall and these grapes are ones that basically fall off the vine once ripe. The 2017 Punta Crena Cruvinis both unfiltered and unfined
and spends all its time in stainless steel with about 4 months on the
lees. I immediately smelled earth and dirt upon smelling this wine.
Lots of dark fruit, some spice, lower in tannin with a smooth
structure. Quite interesting to say the least and worth seeking out.
SRP $34
Azienda Agricola Danila Pisano
Picture sourced from Louis Dressner
Danila Pisano is a winery located on the far west side of Liguria bordering France in the Val VerbonneValley.Danila, owner of the winery, restored the family vineyards in 1990 and has been making wine every since. They became certified organic back in 1996. Danila grows exclusively the Rossese grape, native to Liguria. It is typically called Rossese di Dolceacqua named after the village from which it grows. The 2017 Danila Pisano Rossese di Dolceacqua
is a soft, delicate wine displaying red fruit. Light in body with a
hint of pepper, violets and currants. For those that love red wines and
are looking for something lighter to drink in the warm months you may
want to check this out. SRP $24
Welcome to our 20th Italian Food, Wine & Travel (#ItalianFWT) event where we're finally completing our first circle around all 20 regions in Italy finishing with the region ofLiguria this month.
Gulf of Poets by Susan Nelson
As I passed
through Liguria headed for the French Riviera, Costa Azzurra, for my honeymoon, the stunning views from the autostrada
entice you to make a stop and explore this wonderful place they call
the Italian Riviera. It may be a narrow arching region up in the
northwest of Italy, but it's the perfect place for some sunshine,
relaxation and a little vino of course.
View of Liguria from the autostrada. Not too shabby!
Where is Liguria?
Following the
western Italian coastline it's the last region before you cross into
France. Coming from Tuscany or maybe the Emilia Romagna, it's the
perfect place to get a taste of the Ligurian Sea. Along this
bright, gorgeous coastline are plenty of beaches dotted with colorful
picturesque towns. It's the perfect place to getaway and escape the
craziness of everyday life. The popular towns are Portofino, Sanremo,
Genoa, Ventimiglia and the hikers destination known as the Cinque Terre.
Liguria is easy to get to by flying into the capital of Liguria, Genoa, with it's international airport and
central train station. You can also approach the Italian Riviera by
boat as well.
The Wines of Liguria
As you travel from west to east you start with the area known as the
Riviera di Levante and on the eastern side is the Riviera di Ponente.
In Liguria you'll find some grapes you've probably never heard of like
pigato, albarola, bosco, rossese and ormeasco. Is it surprise to you
we're discovering more native grapes of Italy unknown to many?
That's why we're here right?!
The Riviera di
Ponente (Western Riviera)
West of Genoa is the Riviera di Ponente. This is the sunniest part
of the region for grape growing. You'll find bigger, bolder reds
grown here. Here you'll also discover the whites: Pigato
and Vermentino, but the reds of this area are ormeasco,
also known as dolcetto from the region north in Piedmont, and
rossese. Rossese is a lighter, soft wine than ormeasco with
less tannins than ormeasco.
Riviera di
Levante (Eastern Riviera)
East of Genoa is the Riviera di Levante. This is the cooler part of
the region, is more shaded, and produces more mineral driven wines.
The most prevalent area for winemaking here is that of the Cinque Terre.
I plan on sharing this region more in depth in future articles as
there is much history here and the way the grapes are cultivated are
very intriguing due to it's steep vineyards. Here whites are the
focus on the wine scene including the grapes bosco, vermentino and
albarola. These are lighter style wines with a beautiful
fragrance and crisp acidity. Perfect after the hikes between the 5
towns of the Cinque Terre: Manarola, Vernazza, Riomaggiore,
Monterosso al Mare and Corniglia.
Winemaking in the Cinque Terre by Mark Goebel
A special wine also hails from
this area of the Cinque Terre known as schiacchetra, which is a sweeter style
wine where the grapes are dried out on ventilated racks resulting in
high sugar concentration and alcohol.
So the next time you want to escape to the beach consider Liguria and
immerse yourself in the sunshine with a glass of vino in hand!
Join us this Saturday June 4th on Twitter live at 11am Est @ #ItalianFWT to chat about everything Liguria has to offer.
Next month we circle all the regions of Italy again only starting with orange wines of Italy and some hidden gems. So join us back on Saturday July 2nd!
