Ep. 2076 Corvina, Corvinone by Andrea Eby | Italian Grape Geek

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The name means, well, we think Little Raven, and it actually is one of sort of a handful of Italian grape varieties that has a name that somehow relates to birds. We don't really know if the name is a reference perhaps to how the dark colored skins of the berries really resemble the dark feathers of a raven or maybe simply the fact that the variety was, and probably is a favorite snack of the Raven bird. Other theories tie its name to words such as which kind of translates to dark berries or which means a large basket probably referencing. Again, it's kinda tendencies to have some higher yields or which means unripe. That could kinda point to a name that is referencing its more sort of late ripening tendencies. So we don't know a lot about the history of Corvina, so we can't say for certain where the name comes from, but we do know that, you know, considering how important it is in the wines of Flicheries as Valpulachella. The wines of Valpulachella, Amarrone Occhieto, and, of course, Bardolino as well. It is really surprising that we don't know more about the the history of the variety. There are, however, some perhaps more dubious references to what could have been Corvina, one by Alessandro Picano, who in sixteen twenty seven wrote of Vini Corvini in his self help book of the day, which was called the problem with drinking cold beverages. And despite the title, which would suggest almost the opposite, he was actually quite a proponent of drinking cold beverages. He thought it really helped promote digestion. So he mentions this Vini Cortvini in there, and we think, well, perhaps that could be a reference to our Cortovina of today. A possible references pop up in seventeen fifty five, eighteen ten, but first really reliable description, isn't until eighteen twenty four. Part of the difficulty tracing the vine's history seems to stem from the fact that many varieties and biotypes were kind of given this Corvina Corvina like name. So you have varieties like Corvina, commune, Corvina, Corvina, Corvina. Corvina gentile, Corvina Mira Corvina, Ervina, Ervina, Ervina, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. Now we know through, you know, genetic testing, etcetera, that many of these are in fact different varieties. While some are actually clones of Corvina, but all of this similar nomenclature has really complicated trying to untangle the past of of Corvina. What we do know is that Corvina has a parent offspring relationship with Orofosco Del Penicolo, Orooso, and Orlando. So connecting all of these kind of genetic dots leads us to an understanding that it therefore is probably likely a grandchild of Montzenino. Key features about Corvina in the vineyard. It is it has these sort of medium sized bunches that are quite compact. And they tend to have this very long sort of wing bunch. And often it's so big that kind of wing bunch that it often almost looks like it's got two bunches. Hence, one of the colloquial names that we know for Provina, which is The the berries themselves have a kind of more, olive kind of shape to them. So they almost resemble little black olives with that oval shape. And at harvest, they're often covered with this very generous bloom that gives them a kind of dusty appearance in the vineyard. Farmers though need to pay close attention to the variety because it does have, as I mentioned before, this propensity towards high yields. Botritis also with those tightly packed bunches can be an issue. And, so something that farmers need to watch for because Botritis is not something that, you want when you are choosing bunches, etcetera, especially for the epasemental process. The variety itself is also quite sun sensitive and, exposed bunches can quite easily become sunburned. And so I think this is one of the real reasons why it is really closely associated with the Pargola Vernese training system. That training system helps prevent disease pressure by keeping the bunches high above the kind of more humid ground and exposes the canopy to more ventilation because you're allowing more wind through to pass through the canopy. And then, of course, you have the berries hanging down underneath the canopy. So they're getting a lot of, protection and really helping to mitigate the risk of sunburn. It does have quite thick skins, which make it an ideal candidate for the epasemental process, which also helps to concentrate the sometimes lacking sugars in the grape variety. And again, it's it's hard for us to really imagine in today's day and age that you would really be trying to do whatever you could to somehow concentrate and increase alcohol levels. Today, we hear more and more about farmers who are trying to decrease the natural alcohol levels in the in the grape bunches. There's just too much sugar accumulation, but Corvina does have this tendency to ripen fully, but without accumulating a lot your high levels of sugar. So when you do the epasemental process, you really help concentrate, those sugars. In the glass, the wines when you have them in Carenza, so a hundred percent, Corvina should never be opaque. So it is a wine that even top examples will have these kind of light ruby color moderate tannins, nice refreshing acidity, aromas, and flavors of violets, rosemary, balsam, cherry, blackberry, cinnamon. So just really like beautiful flavors, refreshing flavors. Corvina as a grape variety is most often blended. So it's rarer to find it, as a hundred percent varietal example of Corvina. Most of it is blended into the wines of Velpicella and Bartolino. When you're talking about Velpicella, DOC, Velpicella, Vipaso, DOC, Amarrone della Vicella, DOCG, and recioto Dela Velachella, the OCG, you're looking at, forty five to ninety five percent of those blends being comprised of Corvina or you'll learn a little bit more about in a minute, quote of an. So it really does play a really starring role in a lot of those wines. When you move a little closer to LakeADA, we're talking about Bartolino doc. You're seeing it comprise forty to ninety five percent of those wines as well. As I mentioned, single varietal versions can be found. Probably the most famous is, from Elagrimi La Polla. That one I do find quite a dark, kind of, substantial example. Probably because they're doing, some very extended macerations in those examples. So you're looking at, like, almost a close, close to a month of maceration with the skins, and then twenty months in French So it's a quite a a generous line. Giovanni and Tantini, Luigi brunelli, Davide Esperta, they all make really delicious examples of a hundred percent Quotavino mines as well. My personal connection to Cuotavina, probably came, I think, maybe, was established in two thousand sixteen when, thanks to a friend, Sarge LaVek, of Longo since nineteen sixty one, who's based in Verona. He set up some some visits for me, including one to Quintorale. And I can still remember to this day sitting in Bepe, Quintorale's historic tasting room, which is like nestled within the core of their brand new winery, and just it was a magical experience. And I really kind of fell in love with the region at that moment. I've been lucky enough. I visited again in two thousand and eight teen with a group of wine scholar guild, Italian wine scholar educators, and we visited five or six different producers. And I really had the opportunity to start tasting examples of VELpolicella Superior at that time. Which was something I really hadn't had a lot of experience with until that point. Through Vão pachella Superior. I really began to understand how Corvina was really capable of expressing the terroir where it was growing in my market. The wines of Amaroni and Repaso are much more available. Although those are fantastic wines, they are wines more of process than of place is is what I would characterize in that. And so you learn to distinguish stylistic differences between vintages maybe or between producers through those wines, but it's harder to really get a sense of the place from which the grapes came. But when you're there and you're tasting you really start to be able to taste the difference between the wines growing in the classical area versus the orientale area. That's what interests me the most about Corvina. Is just how much potential there is within the Velcala to really develop the expressions of these various, terroirs. As I mentioned before, there's only a couple examples of bridal crevina available in my market, but There are quite a few examples of Repaso and amarone and starting to be more examples of the basic Velachella and the superior wines. In terms of who would we talk about in terms of, you know, producers, as I mentioned, there are only a few that are making these varietal expressions. If we branch out into, you know, producers of Valpolicella, Amaroni, that sort of thing, then we're talking a much bigger list and I'm gonna be talking in a few minutes with you about Cortevantone. So I'll save some of those, producer names and and mention them then. Food pairing wise, Cortevina can find itself being expressed in so many different ways depending on which style of wine it's being used to produce. We can probably talk about food pairings again when we talk about because they are going to often be blended together. A lot of the foods that goes with wine will go with the other. So let's move on. To talking about Corvino ne. Despite the variety's name, which literally translates into the big Corvina. You think when it's called the big Corvina, that it would just be oh, it looks like Corvina but much bigger. But in fact, it's actually not really that easy to distinguish between quovenone and Corvina, even though it might have these, like, large, slightly larger berries. It looks almost identical to some of the Corvina biotypes. This confusion is not new. It's not just me that, has trouble distinguishing between them, and its history, therefore, is understandably very entangled with that of Corvina. In fact, the varieties resemble each other so closely that many producers initially, like, refused to believe the results of a study that came out in two thousand and three that showed that not only were the varieties not the same, they were, in fact, not even closely related. So to this day, no genetic links have been established, to actually to any other, they had an easy variety. Even though it resembles Cortavina so closely, really hard to believe they're not the same thing and it's even harder to believe that apparently they're not even related. In the vineyard, the variety's biggest handicap is probably its propensity to what they would call a synchronicus ripening, meaning that the bunches can simultaneously have these really full ripe berries. And on the same bunch, these like green hard, unripe acidic little berries that are unpalatable. That makes it super challenging and, producers that really are intent on producing top quality examples of the the variety must really devote a lot of time and, of course, money to meticulously sorting out those unripe berries and bunches. Despite the fact that it requires this really hands on approach in the in the vineyard and the winery, it is gaining in popularity Recently several new clones have been developed that are trying to kind of mitigate some of this propensity towards this fully ripe berries and green berries on the on the same bunch. It's probably really valued in the blends of El Pollicello as it can provide a little more of this panic backbone and structure, something that Corvina doesn't have quite as much of. So if you are looking to make an example of a wine that maybe has a little more structure, body, and ageability, having a little bit of, Corvino in there can really help provide that kind of frame for the wine to develop on. In fact, its growing importance is reflected actually in the fairly recently recent changes to the disciplinaries of, Valle, Amarrone, Amarcio, So previously, the variety could only comprise a maximum of fifty percent of the blend, but now you're allowed to have from forty five to ninety five percent of the blend comprised of the variety itself is is like Corravina in the fact that it has these quite thick skins, which again make it well suited to a passamento. It doesn't tend to be quite as disease, prone in terms of its susceptibility to things like oidiom, as Corvina, so a little more resistance there. In the glass, it has a little more color than Corvina. So deep ruby in the glass, really quite intense cherry. I think is one of the things that really comes across for me. This kind of cherry and spice note really are kind of the dominant things. And then it can also contribute to this little bit of a green herbal note that really kind of relates back to how much sorting producers have done like kind of the conditions the the bunches when they were harvested. So if you have bunches and berries that have a lot more of those green on ripe berries, then the wines in the end have much more of this herbal green sappy note to them. If you have too much of that, yeah, it's not something that can be desirable, but I really like having just a little kind of touch of that in the wines to me. It adds a little sort of aromatic interest and lift to the the wines and freshness as well. Something that can really help in sort of a blind tasting sort of situation to determine, oh, maybe this is valpolicella or or something like that because you get this kind of really almost like pyrazine note there that's not like a cabernet sauvignon pie resin. It's something a little different. And to me, that always leads me back to Despite its growing popularity, mono varietal examples remain rare and perhaps that's due in part to the fact that it's often co planted with Corvina. However, I'm sure someone out there is making a varietal Corvina. So please, if you if you know of one or if you find one, let me know because I would love to taste it. In terms of producers, as I mentioned, unaware to me, if there are a varietal Corpinone out there. So when we talk about producers, I think for the most part, we're talking about producers from the Bell Pollachella area. You can think about some of the really iconic producers who, of course, are making some great examples of wines that could that contain Corvina and Corbinone. So really iconic producers such as Quintarale, Delfono, Romano, Zendeskhi, those kind of producers, Allegrini. If you can find those examples, try them for sure. Some of my kind of personal, more under the radar producers I love the wines of what I gotta say, Massimago, and Sacondo Marco. Those are a couple of my favorites. Almost every market out there can find some example of a wine from Valpolice. So start your exploration anywhere, I think. In terms of food pairing, again, it's really hard to say, you know, Corvina or Corvina go with this particular set of foods because as they are blended, with other grape varieties and at different percentages, you know, it's really hard to say that that is a a direct connection with a great Friday, but in terms of those styles of wine, I love more basic Velicella with, antipasti bruschetta, you know, just really lighter kind of fair. I think it goes even well with some sort of salads that have like a red one, gonna scratch us things like that, compare really nicely with when you start getting into things like the repasto, then you can have a little heavier food. So a nice barbecued hamburger works really well. All the wines tend to have a quite refreshing level of acidity. So for me, I like to kind of play off that and just, yes, you can kind of increase the weight of the food as the weight of the wine increases, but they always have that nice acid component to help cut through the richness of the food, refresh your palate, get you ready for the next bite. When you get into some of those heavier water passos, and of course, amazoni, then you can look into things like, you know, grilled meat, I love it with lamb, like grilled lamb, venison, some of that, sort of more grainy, side of meats can go well. I think it actually goes well with nicely grilled vegetables that maybe have some like concentrated balsamic vinegar on them. And then, of course, getting into the delicious ricciotto side of things, then chocolate for me is one of the ultimate pairings of ricciotto. Yeah. If you think of wines that Corvina and Corvina are blended into, think the world is your oyster in terms of food and wine pairings because there are so many styles, weights, flavors that are associated with those different styles of wine. You can almost find a a Velcala wine that will pair with anything. I hope you've enjoyed learning about, Corobina and Corobina. If you have questions or comments, I'd love to hear them. We'll see you next time. Thank you. Listen to the Italian wine podcast wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, email IFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider are donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time.