ITALY: Central & Southern Italia

 

 

 

ZANASI

The Zanasi family has long been in Emilia-Romagna and these days the family vineyards and winery are run by young Marco Uccellari, whose great-grandpa Luigi Zanasi, got the ball rolling in the late 1800s with a bit of winemaking.

They currently have 22 hectares of vineyards and the company, under its current organization, was set up in 1984.   It's a short drive south from Modena, a region famous for its Aceto Balsamico.  The winery is a ten minute drive east of the Ferrari auto manufacturing facility and the Enzo Ferrari museum.

In the cellar...those are special tanks for making the sparkling wines.

We tasted through the full range of Zanasi wines during our visit, having been impressed by the wines at a trade tasting event in 2018.  

Especially good is their "Bruno Zanasi" bottling of Grasparossa.  It's named after Marco's grandfather and it comes from slightly higher elevation sites, as most vineyards are on the flatlands.  It's inky dark in color and has a beautifully fruity character.  There's a slight bit of sweetness but it's rather high in acidity, so the balance makes the wine taste rather dry.

Marco suggests serving this with a Pepperoni & Mushroom Pizza or a platter of Salumi & Cheeses.

It's a remarkably showy bottle.

 

Currently in stock:  ZANASI LAMBRUSCO GRASPAROSSA DI CASTELVETRO  $21.99

 

 

 

They have a modest production of artisan Balsamic Vinegar...
No...we do not have this product for sale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

VELENOSI

The Velenosi family started on its wine-growing adventure in the mid-1980s making wines in both the Marche and Abruzzo regions.

We find the brand name to be anything but accurate as "Velenosi" translates to "poisonous."  Ha!  Of course, since few Americans speak Italian, their marketing efforts are not thwarted by the unfortunate name.


They cultivate more than 190 hectares and produce a dizzying portfolio of wines.  Happily the importer brings in a focused selection of top wines.

 

Angela Velenosi is a force of nature.  She's become quite the ambassador for the Marche region as well as a terrific promoter of her own wines.  She's now working in tandem with her daughter Marianna.

The current vintage of their Pecorino, a brilliantly expressive dry white, is delightful.

The Pecorino grape is a charming white grape and named, we're told, as there were routinely flocks of sheep (singularly called "pecora") would be herded over hill and dale.  One story is of the shepherds stopping to eat the grapes when ripe and another legend says the sheep would stop and eat the fruit.

The 2023 is 100% Pecorino, hand harvested and brought immediately to the winery.  They ferment in temperature-controlled tanks and the fermentation is initiated with the indigenous yeast on the grape skins.  These are not always capable of fermenting the wine all the way to dryness, so they add a cultured yeast for "insurance."  The resulting wine is amazingly good...You'll find bright aromatics which might remind you of the passionfruit notes of some Sauvignon Blanc wines.  But on the palate there's an intriguing spice note with pineapple undertones.

The wine goes for a most sensible price, too.  $19.99.

You've likely heard of Super Tuscan wines.
These are usually Sangiovese blends with international varieties.  Antinori's Tignanello is maybe the first Super Tuscan, a Chianti Classico, essentially, fortified with Cabernet Sauvignon and matured in small French oak barrels along the lines of a good Bordeaux.  It's routinely excellent and these days you'll pay close to $200 a bottle.

So the Velenosi family employs Montepulciano as the base of a red blend they call Ninfa.  It's a Marche Rosso, so it doesn't carry a hugely prestigious appellation.  Maybe we need to adjust our sights, as it does carry the Velenosi name on the label.  
In any case, they start with Montepulciano which is typically a bigger, fuller-bodied red wine than Tuscany's Sangiovese.  Then they use that Tuscan playbook, incorporating Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah.  French oak cooperage contributes a terrific spice note and complexity.

The first vintage of this magnificent blend was 2019.  We currently have the 2021, an outstanding bottle.

Ninfa...somewhat a nymph.  The inspiration for the label, we understand, came about when someone spilled a dark red wine on a white table cloth, creating a spill along the lines of that depicted now on the label.

I recently purchased a bottle of their fancy Rosso Piceno, a $65 bottle, a blend of Sangiovese and Montepulciano.  I wish I had liked this wine, but it seemed to me to be merely a robust red which lacked charm and complexity.  I'll stick with the Ninfa for now.

Currently in stock: VELENOSI 2024 Offida PECORINO  $19.99
VELENOSI 2021 "NINFA"  Marche Rosso  $34.99  (last bottles)

We sometimes have their Visciole in stock:  A blend of Lacrima red wine with a special kind of sour cherry grown in the Marche region.
They add maybe 30% syrup of these cherries and make a remarkable sweet, after dinner potation.
Stop by and ask...maybe we can play hide & seek and locate this bottle.
$29.99

CANTINA FEDERICI   BAIA DEL SOLE

The Vermentino grape had been quite obscure for American wine drinkers until the early 2000s when we began seeing quite a few of them.  Today there are numerous examples and you can find this variety all along the French and Italian Riviera as well as in Corsia and Sardegna where it is quite an important variety.

We've found many of the Tuscan examples of late to be quite commercial in that many have some residual sugar which we find bothersome.  Of course, marketing people think this sweetness is their ticket to fame and fortune.

The Federici family launched its winery in 1985 and these days, papa Giulio Federici has his sons Luca and Andrea running the show.  They own about 18 hectares of vineyards with 15 more being rented.  

The cellars and vineyards are some 15 kilometers southeast of La Spezia and 52 kilometers north and a tad west of Pisa.  They're close to the border of Tuscany in the southern part of Liguria.

Luca Federici

Luca Federici works in the cellar while his brother Andrea does the vineyard work.  The winery is quite close to the coast and Luca explained the Colline di Luni region near the cellar is a famous site for Vermentino.  "It's always windy in the mornings," he explained, "and this brings a salty element to the wines.  We also have a tremendous swing in daytime to nighttime temperatures which helps retain acidity in the grapes."  
He said the diurnal temperature variation is more stark in this Liguria area than it is in Sardegna's Gallura region.  

The vineyards are in small parcels, by the way.  You won't see a vast expanse of rolling vineyards.  The Federici vineyards are never treated with herbicides.  They do "integrated pest control" as well.  The grapes, which are entirely harvested by hand, are processed at the winery and they use a blanket of argon on top of the juice Luca explained.  "This allows us to avoid the use of sulphur at the outset and our wine ends up with lower levels of SO2 these days than in years gone by.  The tanks are all temperature-controlled and we typically have the white wines bottled by the April following the harvest."

The cellar is underground and, in this location, it's below sea level.  This provides great insulation and cooling.

They make some red wines...all are Sangiovese blends.

They're now dabbling in sparkling wine, too.

The floating material is the dead yeast cellars on which the wine is aging after the completion of its
secondary fermentation in the bottle.

There's a nice tasting room at Federici.

"


The Federici brothers:  Andrea and Luca

We tasted many good wines on our visit to La Baia del Sole.  

Especially good is the Vermentino coming from the "Sarticola" area, a sort of "cru" designation for top wines.
The steep vineyard for Federici's Sarticola is about 330 meters above sea level and the vines are approximately 40 years of age.  Soils are mostly schist with a bit of clay, if you care about the particular terroir.  Most customers simply want to know if the wine is good.
And it is.


We have the 2018 vintage in the shop presently.  There's a touch of a spice note and maybe that hint of "saltiness" in the wine.  
Dry...no oak.  Classic.

A woman purchased a bottle at our suggestion and she returned a few days later demanding three more bottles of "whatever that cola wine was...something-cola is all I remember other than we loved it!"

Currently in stock:  2018 LA BAIA DEL SOLE "Colli di Luna" VERMENTINO "SARTICOLA"  Sold Out
(We've tried to introduce this winery to some local importers...no luck...yet)

Many of their neighbors stop by the winery with empty demijohns to refill with a fresh pour of Vermentino or Sangiovese.

While we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at a little seaside restaurant neat the winery.

 

The beach outside had a number of sunbathers and people hiking along the shore.

ARNALDO CAPRAI

Umbria is a treasure trove of interesting discoveries.  The grand "old" name in the region was Lungarotti and they make "pleasant" wines these days.  

There's another producer, however, making an international impact on the market and that would be the "Val di Maggio di Arnaldo Caprai."  This fellow made money in the textile biz and turned those threads into vineyard land in the Montefalco sub-zone of Torre.  

 The firm started in 1971 with some ten hectares of vines in Montefalco.  Today they have about 136 hectares and then some.  Caprai's facility is modern, clean and efficiently constructed.  The work, however, begins in the vineyard.  Caprai collaborates with the Universita di Milano in clonal research regarding Sagrantino.  As a result, the famous vine nursery company Rauscedo now offers several "Caprai Clones" of Sagrantino.   However, there are more than 50 clones, according to Marco Caprai, who runs the winery.  

Caprai, aware of the arrival in the neighborhood of a wave of "foreign" producers, has planted "new" varieties such as Spain's Tempranillo and the Rhône Valley's Syrah.  They are also experimenting with densely-planted vineyards, seeing if fewer grapes per vine enhances wine quality.  

The reason many are flocking to this region seems to have more to do with Sagrantino than anything else.  That being said, it is not clear to me that there is anything extraordinary about the terroir in the Montefalco zone.  This, I suppose, is more testimony to the fine work being done by a handful of producers, led by Caprai, than anything else.  

Sagrantino is a grape with the highest polyphenols concentration of any grape variety, meaning the wine's natural tendency is towards a high level of tannin.  It can be more powerful than Cabernet Sauvignon, for example.  Caprai leaves the skins in contact with the juice for about 30 days, longer than most California Cabernets.  

We had often found wines made from the Sagrantino grape to be a real challenge because the tannin and astringency levels have been so high.  Caprai, with the help of famous winemaker Attillio Pagli, seems to have come up with a protocol for taming some of the harsh tannins and offering a wine of greater balance and even a bit of finesse.  

CLICK HERE TO SEE MORE CAPRAI PHOTOS

Apparently the Caprai family cannot count past 25, and so their high-end, ultra reserve bottling of Sagrantino is called "25 Anni" to commemorate their 25th anniversary.  The first vintage was made in 1993 and it's been labeled as "25 Anni" ever since.

It's a big, tannic blockbuster-of-a-red-wine and one which always garners high ratings from the critics who often measure wine by its height, weight and impact on the palate.  

 

The fermentation is done in stainless steel and this takes a couple of week using native yeasts.
The wine remains on the skins for close to a month and this helps extract the tannin that makes this such a beast.

To tame the tannin, though, the wine spends two years in French oak and this seems to have yielded a nicely balanced bottling of Sagrantino.

We like the dark berry fruit and the mildly woodsy fragrances and flavors from the oak.  It's a worthy bottle for a steak or lamb.  This can likely go for another decade, or two, in the cellar.

I suppose one can make an argument that if Brunello and Barolo can cost consumers north of a hundred bucks a bottle, this one should, too.  And it does.  



Caprai makes a Montefalco Rosso, an "Umbrian Chianti," if you will.  It's 70% Sangiovese, fortified with 15% each of Sagrantino and Merlot.  They mature this in small French oak for about a year.

The Sagrantino "Collepiano" is the "normal" bottling of this variety.  Collepiano refers to the rolling hills of the Montefalco area.  The wine spends nearly two years in French oak barriques so there's a nice touch of wood (cedar and vanillin) in this wine.  It's a most impressive Italian red, overshadowed only by the "25 Anni" bottling.

Caprai also produces a Passito and a Grechetto wine.

 

Currently in stock: 2001 Sagrantino di Montefalco  Sold out
2020 Sagrantino "25 Anni" (A super Reserve designation)  SALE  $129.99

 

 

 

 

COLPETRONE

This winery is brand new and it's the property of Saiagricola, a subsidiary of the SAI insurance firm.  It's impressive that such a large firm would have investments in such a risky business as agriculture!

The firm owns estates in Montepulciano and Montalcino, along with an agriturismo estate where they happen to produce sunflower seed  and olive oils.  There's also a rice farm in Piemonte!

Colpetrone is a modern-styled Sagrantino wine.  I first tasted this on an Umbrian excursion in 2002.   It was a 1998 Colpetrone and the wine was most impressive.  They seem to have a good idea of quality, as even the somewhat challenging 2002 vintage yielded a deep, rich wine.  

The first vintage was 1996 and the property had a mere 5 hectares of vineyards.  Today there are some 63 hectares under vine and with the 2002 vintage they produced 58,000 bottles.  This jumps to about 200,000 bottles with the harvest of 2003.  

The winery, a bit off the beaten path in the outskirts of Gualdo Cattaneo, is open for visitors.

Monday through "Fry-day".

The morning of my visit they were racking the wines in the cellar and cleaning the barrels.

Barrels in this facility have a 3 year cycle.  They typically are replacing about 33% of their barrels annually.  We went back to their tasting room to have a first-palate "look" at the wines.

The 2004 Sagrantino strikes me as perhaps a bit more "Umbrian" and slightly less of an internationally-styled wine than many of the previous vintages.  We've enjoyed the overtly oaky character of earlier versions, but the 2004 seems less cedary and vanillin and somewhat more like a big, brooding Sagrantino.  There's a mildly earthy quality and some woodsy, brushy notes on the nose.  The wine is fairly robust on the palate and almost hinting at Barolo to a small degree (though darker in color and bigger)...It will be interesting to see how this wine evolves.  We like it now with roasted or grilled red meats.  It will probably develop nicely over the next 3-6 years and may even soften a bit.

Currently in stock:  2004 COLPETRONE "Sagrantino di Montefalco"  (List $60)  SALE $49.99    (last bottles)

SCACCIADIAVOLI

If you're in need of some wine for your upcoming exorcism, you really should consider the wines of this Umbrian estate!

Owned by the Pambuffetti family, this winery has about 130 hectares of various crops, including sunflowers, sugar beets, olives and grains.  They currently cultivate about 30 hectares of vineyards.  Pambuffetti is a name that is synonymous with the town of Montefalco.  There's a Villa Pambuffetti which features a hotel, restaurant and cooking school.

Back in the 17th century, there was, apparently, some sort of exorcism carried out here.   The legend is that some young woman was possessed by the devil and the exorcist had her drink some of the local wine.  Problem solved, apparently.  The place then took the name "Scaccia Diavoli" and the legend continues.

In the 19th century, Prince Ugo Boncompagni built a large winemaking facility.  My tour guide at Scacciadiavoli made a big deal of pointing out Ugo's initials being still emblazoned all over the facility.

UB  -  Ugo Boncompagni.

They have a nice facility for fermenting their wines.

This was "state of the art" in 1909!

Quite a contrast between today's winemaking and that of a hundred years ago.

We have tasted a few good wines of this estate.

They make "Montefalco Rosso," a sort of "Umbrian Chianti," if you will.  It's about two-thirds Sangiovese and the rest is Merlot with a bit of Sagrantino.  It ends up being a nice bottle of wine, if different from classic Chianti or Tuscan Sangiovese.  There's a cherryish aspect to the 2019 and it has a bit of spice, too.  Oak is not noticeable here for my taste.  It's a medium+ bodied red which is drinkable now and ought to remain good for another few years.

More profound, as one would expect, is their Sagrantino.  The 2015 is deep, dark and will stain whatever you spill it on.  The wine is teeming with sweet berry fruit and vanillin notes from the oak.  It's nicely balanced, being round and not as aggressive or earthy as many Sagrantino wines.  It's quite a rich and powerful wine.  You can drink the 2012 now and, I suspect, over the next decade. It's been interesting to taste their wines over the past decade as clearly they are making wines of greater balance (between fruit and oak as well as in terms of tannin).

We also have a bottle or two of their exceptional Passito.  This is a sweet wine...Sagrantino made sweet was, at one point in time (and not so long ago), "the" prominent expression of this grape.  I suspect this was because winemakers had difficulty making a red wine of balance back in the 'dark ages.'  Anyway, a number of winemakers still make sweet examples of Sagrantino and Scacciadiavoli's is quite good.  It's served in place of Port or Banyuls, so pairing it with a blue-veined cheese or chocolate dessert is ideal.

Currently in stock:  2019 SCACCIADIAVOLI "Montefalco Rosso"  $19.99
2015 SCACCIADIAVOLI "Sagrantino" $44.99
2003 SCACCIADIAVOLI "Passito"  $47.99 (375ml bottle)

 

FATTORIA COLLEALLODOLE  (Milziade Antano)

As you can see by their label, this estate is a bit "hands on" and somewhat old fashioned.  This has brought the Antano family, then, a good deal of fame amongst fans of "old school" Italian wines.

The property is located near Montefalco in the town of Bevagna.  The story begins in the late 1960s when Milziade Antano purchased around 30 hectares on which to raise some cattle and cultivate a few vineyards.

The 1975 vintage was their first and some years later they discovered the novelty of putting wine in smallish glass bottles, rather than selling wine in demijohns.  

Milziade's son Francesco grew interested in the business of winemaking and in 1997 he made the moderately famous "Sagrantino Colleallodole" which is a made up name referring to the hill of the larks...these little birds which pass through the region on a migratory excursion around the middle of October.

Today the estate comprises 40 hectares, but now they've doubled the plantings from maybe a decade ago and 25 hectares of these are planted with vines.

We're fans of their Sagrantino "Colleallodole", a wine of which they make precious few bottles.   A decade ago they produced maybe 1300 bottles of Sagrantino.  Now they make something like 5,000 bottles, maybe more as the winery produces around 70,000 bottles in total.

It's made entirely of Sagrantino and it's matured for about 3 years...15 months in wood (large cooperage such as puncheons) and then another 15 months in stainless steel tanks before bottling.  Then it's kept for six more months before they parcel out the few bottles they make.

The Antano family is well-regarded in the region.

Currently we have their Montefalco Rosso from the 2020 vintage...a good "Umbrian Chianti".  It's based on Sangiovese and they blend in a bit of Sagrantino which adds color and body.  It's a medium+ bodied red wine and drinkable in its youth.    You can tell it's not the work of a big winery and there's a slightly rustic element here.  That's not to denigrate the wine, but it's not inky dark in color or lavishly-oaked.  There's a mildly earthy tone here and this matches very well with tomato-sauced pastas or dishes featuring garlic, rosemary and oregano. 

Currently in stock:  2004 MILZIADE ANTANO Sagrantino "Colleallodole"  Sold Out
2020 MILZIADE ANTANO Montefalco Rosso  $25.99

The Valentini family has been in Umbria for more than a hundred years but it's only in 2002 they decided to start making wine and marketing it under a brand name called "Bocale," a term for a two liter flagon for either wine or olive oil.

They own 10 hectares of land, with just six planted to vineyard.

We're told they farm organically and the wines are fermented using native yeasts.  

No micro-filtration they say and they don't cold stabilize their wines.

We're familiar solely with their Trebbiano Spoletino, a delightful dry white wine.

This gets 12 to 18 hours of a cold soak to start before it's fermented in stainless steel tanks.
They give it something like 6 months on the spent yeast following the fermentation and then it's bottled to capture the mildly peachy character of the grape.

It's dry and non-oaked...well-priced, too!


Currently in stock: BOCALE 2023 TREBBIANO SPOLETINO  $21.99

BARBOLINI (makers of REAL Lambrusco!)

Anna Barbolini and Mauro Buffagni make this amazingly fizzy, lively Lambrusco near Modena in Emilia Romagna. 

 Modena, of course, is world famous for its Aceto Balsamico, a carefully-produced, well-aged vinegar.  There is Balsamico and there is real, shockingly expensive Balsamico doled out by the eye-dropper!  Barbolini, by the way, has a small production of Balsamico aging in the "acetaia" above the winery.


There is also Lambrusco and real Lambrusco.  A number of humungous firms make a simple, light, fruity little beverage that was quite fashionable a decade or two ago here in the Bay Area.  

The Barbolini wine is made of Lambrusco Grasparossa, differentiating itself from the Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce and the Lambrusco di Sorbara. 

Here's a wine with a touch of tannin, accentuated a bit by the effervescence of the wine.  The fragrance is somewhat reminiscent of violets and berries.  
This is a great "little" wine (no wine writer would dare give 90 points to such a humble and honest vino rosso!) that's perfect with a spicy pasta, home-made pizza or messy grilled ribs.  As this is quite bubbly, be sure to thoroughly chill your bottle of Barbolini.  Serve it in clear tumblers or wine glasses.  You can, however, be subject to arrest if you drink this through a straw!

We were recently at a place which had the Barbolini Lambrusco on the wine list.  It was reasonably priced, too, around $26.  I ordered a bottle.
And I must have been the first customer to have understood the wine as the server tried a couple of times to caution me.

"Uh, sir, you know, this is not a sweet wine."
"Yes, I'm aware of that."
"Well, sir," he warned me, "this is a really bubbly, effervescent wine."
"I sure hope so!  I know the wine very well and have visited the winery." I replied.  "It ought to be sensational with your salumi plate."
A few moments later the fellow regained consciousness, since virtually all the hicks who dine at that lovely place expect Lambrusco to either be akin to Coca-Cola and sweet or are stunned to find the deep, dark-colored wine they ordered is bubbling over in the glass.

 

Currently in stock: Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro (list $17) Sold Out some years ago

A view of the winery office from the Acetaia.

 

The signs on the door of Barbolini's office.

Lab samples.

 

Lambrusco awaiting shipment.

 

 

The population which abandons the earth is 

destined to decline.

Barbolini's Balsamico production in the "Acetaia." 

We visited the winery again a few years ago and stopped in at 10am where Mrs. Barbolini-Buffagni had prepared a "power breakfast" of sorts featuring the local specialties: Prosciutto di Parma, Mortadella, Gnocco (a sort of bread, not the pasta you know as gnocchi) and, of course, good Lambrusco.

"Mama" Barbolini insisting everyone have more food, while "Dad" opens more bottles.

We don't have their Balsamico, but it is a good one!

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