ITALIAN WINE CLUB
AUGUST 2021
GARDAS! GARDAS!
Stunning and iconically picturesque Lake Garda and the surrounding hillsides were cut by receding glaciers after the ice age and the resulting morainic soils provide optimal terroir for healthy vineyards. In fact, we can thank the Hapsburgs of Austria who ruled this area prior to the unification of Italy that first classified it as top notch lands for viticulture.
Interestingly enough, however, it turns out that only the lands surrounding Verona, to the East of Garda, have transcended the test of time when it comes to global recognition for great wines. This is the Valpolicella region; an area that is actually completely unique to Italy (and much of the wine world) in that it’s not the grapes nor the terroir that are the feature here, but instead the traditional winemaking style called ‘Ripasso’ that make what we know as Amarone. These are indeed wines that are more that worth celebrating and cellaring, but there is still so much more to be discovered from around the Garda coastlines.
So many wines that can be far more expressive of the scents and flavors and what a special place Lake Garda truly is. One can’t drink Amarone for every occasion, but Garda provides depths of flavors that are the building blocks to that specific liquid opus.
– Kevin Wardell, August 2021
DOWNLOAD A PDF OF THE TASTING NOTES HERE.
MARANGONA LUGANA
Lugana, Veneto, Italy, 2019
TURBIANA (aka TREBBIANO DI LUGANA)
The landscape and knowledge of Italian grapes is still such a moving target, and the only way to describe Turbiana at this time is: TBD. Now called Turbiana, after its original local name, but then referred to as Lugana in reference to its location, as well as the assumption that it was actually Trebbiano di Lugana, then it was thought to be Verdicchio that has broken beyond it’s Marchigiani borders, but now turns out to it’s own distinctly genetic grape variety that is back to being good old fashioned Turbiana… Or is it?!
Learn it, love it, but be flexible in your knowledge of absolutes as to its roots. These particular roots are certainly beautiful enough to behold on their own located on the Garda coastline and their mysterious origin story clearly lends a little something to their intrigue.
Alessandro Cutolo is the fourth generation to run his family’s magnificent estate, just a half mile from the water’s edge at Lake Garda, which has mineral-rich calcareous clay soil. Alessandro, the young owner and winemaker, harvests the Trebbiano in two passes, half in mid-September and the rest in mid-October at fuller ripeness, in order to capture tons of fresh acidity, with added complex body and fullness (without the residual sugar in popular use!) The wine is aged on its fine lees and then bottled early, with no oak or malolactic fermentation. ‘Marangona’ is the local name of a bell rung throughout the area to signify the end of the workday. Ring my bell, ring my bell!
Like Verdicchio taking summer vacation lounging lakeside, this Lugana has the verve and texture of Matelica but with a Garda laid-back sensibility. There’s corn thread tassel and a handful of crunchy celery leaves layered on a crystalline structure built on all that minerally calcareous soil. The color is clear as rainwater and the aroma is deep and profound as the lake, with a delicate palate of stone fruit as stony as the limestone pebbles skipped across its surface. Whatever you call it, you’ll find yourself longing for Lugana, turgid for Turbiana, and virile for Verdicchio.
At 1,135 feet deep and covering 146 square miles, Lake Garda is Italy’s largest lake and beloved by tourists for its crystal clear water. It makes for a stunning backdrop for the vines grown along its coast to say the least.
CAVALCHINA CHIARETTO
Bardolino Chiaretto, Veneto, 2020
CORVINA
This classic grape variety trio (Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara) are known worldwide for creating the famous wines of Valpolicella. They are only recently being recognized for their collective ability to create fabulous Rosato wines even though the tradition is not at all a new tradition. “Chiaretto” comes from the word chiaro, meaning pale or light. Chiaretto producers harvest their rose grapes a week or two earlier than the grapes picked for red Bardolino wine so that the acidity remains high.
Cavalchina’s owner is literally a rockstar winemaker. Franco Piona, spends much of his time as guitar tech on tour with Billy Gibbons and Steve Vai, and the rest of his days on the shores of Lake Garda, in Custoza. His family is actually responsible for the creation of the Custoza appellation in the 1970s, and the history goes even deeper, to 1948 when Franco’s grandfather Luciano first planted vines after World War II.
Today, brothers Franco and Luciano run their grandfather’s estate, earning themselves international recognition as masters of Chiaretto. The three varieties are harvested together and spend an overnight, pre-fermentation skin contact soak before pressing and then fermenting together in stainless steel. Malolactic fermentation is blocked, and the wine is aged on its lees until bottling in February.
Quite literally sparkling in the glass, this pink is as brilliant as a rainbow and the bottle will last about as long. They say that Chiaretto can mimic Provence, but this one really means it. Brilliantly deep and juicy, the chiaretto cornucopia is supremely bountiful with summer delights like cantaloupe, grapefruit rind, peaches and white nectarines, with salted white strawberries, watermelon pith, rainier cherries, dried herbs… you name it.
Chiaretto supposedly had its inception in 1896, when Pompeo Molmenti, an attorney and writer with possibly the funnest name ever, created his pale pink; but it took til 1968 for Chiaretto to be named an official DOC.
LE FRAGHE
Bardolino, Veneto, Italy 2020
CORVINA + RONDINELLA
Corvina, or ‘little raven’, is one of many grapes in Italy named after a bird. Although it certainly is a sweet target for the winged locals, it may also be attributed to the naturally dark color of the berries. Oddly enough, although the Corvina berries appear dark, there is not a high level of pigment in the skins and there they don’t make inky wines as one would expect. These two grapes used in Bardolino are the same found in the better known Valpolicella appellation to the southeast. This is obviously a more playful take on these grapes than the chewy Ripasso wines of Amarone.
Mathilde Poggi is an undisputed champion of Bardolino, and there are few winemakers that rival her love for the area. Native to the region, Mathilde grew up obsessed with grapes, and even as a young girl she’d finish the school day and go harvest fruit out in the vineyards of the morainic hillsides around Lake Garda. She dreamed since childhood of farming her own vines and making her own wines. She took on the family’s heritage of growing in the area since 1881, and a century later, In 1984 she made her own wines with the founding of Le Fraghe. She now works alongside her three daughters Marta, Irene, and Olga to manage the winery’s four vineyards and winery. The vineyards are farmed organically around 620 feet elevation in the heart of Bardolino, outside of the town of Affi.
There are picnic wines, and then there are The Perfect Picnic Wines – wines like Le Fraghe that are so vibrantly fresh and jubilantly joyful that they pair just perfectly with a sunny lakeside blanket banquet. Loaded with fresh cranberry, raspberry and crunchy red fruits, and yet snappy with a peppery spice, this wine isn’t all just decadent juice, it has some edge and some intriguing angles. Zesty orange peel and fresh strawberry puree is all tempered by that touch of cinnamon and even a hint of iodine and graphite that will tickle the Pino-Noir lover in us all. In short, it’s Fraghe-in’ delicious.
Bardolino as an appellation in the shadows of the iconic Valpolicella and is still finding its way. The trend away from the inclusion of and reliance on Cabernet has thankfully been embraced by younger growers and winemakers.
MONTE DALL'ORA 'SAUSTÒ'
+ 20% RONDINELLA + 10% MOLINARA
Valpolicella, Veneto, Italy 2017
CORVINA + CORVINONE
Corvina and Corvinone we’re for a long time considered the same grape variety, just differing clones. Now it is understood that they are genetically different, but still easily confused with one another. They are most often interplanted, they share similar growing patterns and challenges, but most importantly they both have hearty skins that can remain intact during the traditional drying and sweetening process for ‘Ripasso’ wines. There are a few single varietal wines that are made from Corvina, but now it may turn out that those are indeed field blends as well.
Monte Dall’Ora is the handiwork of Carlo Venturini and wife Alessandra Zantedeschi. Their winery is located in the center of Valpolicella, on one of five ridges across the valley (which resemble a hand and fingers.) The duo both come from winemaking families but began their own independent project together in 1995 with the purchase of some neglected terraces in unique porous limestone soils. They planted the traditional varieties Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella, and Oseleta, farming organically and embracing biodynamics in 2006.
The vineyards are trained in pergola-style, which Carlo and Alessandra feel is necessary for many reasons: to protect the fruit from the sun, claiming that both Corvina and Corvinone are susceptible to sunlight, and to reduce vigor, since both are vigorous and prone to rot, they feel that Pergola creates space between clusters and smaller and more concentrated bunches. They follow the motto that “finding the equilibrium in the vineyard brings balance in the cellar.”
This is such an elegant and restrained version of the classic style, and yet it so beautifully typifies Valpo’s best qualities. With some dark sweet fruits like black plum, medjool date, cherry bark, and a splash of sarsaparilla, the wine is so much about that texture – like brushed corduroy. The aromatics are nostalgic – suede leather that smells just like Volkswagen beetle upholstery, a touch of wet clay, old books, and a hint of oxidative character like an old wine aged to perfection. The finish lingers with the bitterness of baking chocolate and an acidic brilliance rarely achieved in the style.
Not many places in the world you can consider Marble as part of the vineyard soil makeup. Valpolicella was historically more famous for its Marble than it’s wine and evidence of this iconic stone can sometimes be found amongst the vines.