Ep. 1709 Rondinella By Russ Lorber | Italian Grape Geek

One eight eight zero. Welcome to the Italian Great Geek Podcast. Join us as we explore personal stories of travel and tasting with Italy's must know grape varietals. Chart your own course with my Italian Greg beef journal, your personal tasting companion to accompany the series available now on Amazon with thanks to Clangelo and partners for their generous support with this project. Talatutte. This is Russ Lorbert coming to you from Baltimore, Maryland. I'm a certified Italian wine ambassador, and the founder of my company wide roots, which is a line, import, and wholesale business based here in Baltimore in the US. I run wide routes along with fellow Italian line ambassadors, Stacy Daniels, and Vinei De Pino. We currently represent twenty two Italian producers and two Spanish producers in our market. I got into the wine business about three years ago after a twenty five year career in corporate America. And after it wore me down quite a bit, I decided to follow a passion and get into the wine business. And it's been a very exciting journey so far. You can learn much more about that journey if you watch the documentary wine hunter, which is streaming free on YouTube. So today, we're talking about the Rondinella grape, which is found in the Venodel region and most prominently known as a blending grape. I wasn't familiar with the grape until well into my journey into Italian wine. However, at the very beginning, I was exploring the wines of Valpulicella and Valpulicella Repaso and Amarone not knowing that the grape was part of that blend. Essentially, as I started learning more about grapes and wine, I came to understand that Corvina and Rondinella were key components of the blends in those wines. And so that was how Rondinella first hit my radar personally because we don't really see mono varietal examples of Rondinella. It's typically used as a blend in those wines. And so a little bit hard to explore for that reason, but really the best way to explore it is just to get as many examples of the Valpolicella wines as possible maybe even looking at some blend percentages to see which ones have a higher percentage of that blondiella grape so that you get more of the essence of what that grape brings to the blend. This grape has a very special place for me because back when I was learning about Italian wines, it was really one of my gateways into the whole world of Italian wine. I first tasted an example of Valpolice El Paso This was a really affordable way to discover the versatility of red wines in general and was really at the beginning of the development of my pallet. So it was interesting for me to take on the assignment of writing about this grape and understanding from Dinella's contribution to the blend in these wines. So for the grape itself, we don't know its exact origins. We do know that it is a genetic offspring of Corvina, which is the more prominent grape in the valpolicella wines. It's a dependable grape in the vineyard, so it's relatively easy to grow, adaptable, consistent, and it ripens relatively easy. Its contribution to the wines would include red fruit notes and also a ruby appearance, and it can be medium in body and acidity and lower in tannin. We don't normally see this as a mono varietal wine, especially here in the US. So it's much more usual to find it in the DOC wines of Bartolino, Valpulicella, Valpulicello repasso, and then the DOCG wines of Amarone, Bartolino, superiore, and Grachoto Dela Valpulicella. And because of its easy ripening properties, it makes it a really important part of the blend and the sweeter ricciotto wines. In Bartolino, it can also be made into Rosado wines. But normally we see it made as a red wine. So Rondinella is named after swallows, which are known locally as Rondine either because the color of their feathers resembled the color of the grape were because the Rondine would eat the grapes. So in our market here in the US, it is relatively easy to find, the Valicella and amarone wines that include the Rondinella grape, don't normally see Bartolino very often here in the US though. Benchmark producers include Chase Adi Allegrini Tadeshi and Zenato, and these are typically able to be found in the US market. For food pairing, I would pair the fresher valpolicella wines, the younger wines with antipasti and fresh young cheese, but also pasta. And then the fuller repasso can go with pizza pasta and grilled meats. For amarone, I'm going to put something more substantial against it like a roasted game dish or a more aged cheese. And so that's our story on the Rondinella grape. Listen to the Italian wine podcast, wherever you get your podcasts. We're on SoundCloud, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, HimalIFM, and more. Don't forget to subscribe and rate the show. If you enjoy listening, please consider donating through Italian wine podcast dot com. Any amount helps cover equipment, production, and publication costs. Until next time, chi ching.