Ep. 1881 Calabrese - Nero d'Avola, Canaiolo Nero by Erin DeMara | Italian Grape Geek

The Italian wine podcast is the community driven platform for Italian winegeeks around the world. Support the show by donating at italian wine podcast dot com. Donate five or more Euros, and we'll send you a copy of our latest book, my Italian Great Geek journal. Absolutely free. To get your free copy of my Italian GreatGeek journal, click support us at italian wine podcast dot com, or wherever you get your pods. Welcome to the Italian GreatGeek 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 GreatGeek 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. Hello again, Aaron here. Let's spend some time together today on the island of Sicily where we'll talk for a few minutes about the most planted red grape. Calabresi. What? What? You never heard of it? Well, that's the name in the Italian Great registry. Oh, you know what? Maybe you know it better by its old sicilian names, Calavrissi or Cala Abulhissi. You know, this morphing of the name over years all come from the same original meeting, the grape coming down from Avala, which we all know as Metodavala. Hey. No one said that becoming the Italian grape eek would be easy. And if Miradavala is indeed from Avala, it's for centuries now thrive in nearly every corner of Sicily. Remember that the more clones and biotates of a wine and the names, the longer it has probably been growing in a place? Well, Miradavala has four official clones. But according to Alecio Paneta, winemaker for the world famous planet Estates and someone that I've worked with over the years, he says there are at least a hundred different narrowdavala clones growing throughout Sicily. Pretty much every corner of the island except the extreme Northeast tip. And we know that Narardaba is included in twenty of the twenty three DOCs in Sicily and is the main grape in the one DOCG on the island Cheda Swolo de Vittoria. But because narrowdable expresses so differently in the various soils and elevation of the island, it's not easy to pin down just a few hallmark tasting notes. During one via master class in verona, the Cecilia Duck consortium had us blind takes six narrowdables from five separate regions. In the glass, the wines ranged all over from deep ruby to purple color medium to high intensity of red black fruits like plums, berries, cherries. Some of them had bright floral notes. Others lean towards herbal and brambly spicy. While a few of them, honestly, were downright dark, hints of licorice, tobacco, black olive, and I kid you not even notes of tomato paste and anchovy. Delicious, but unusual, I know. All of them really though had no more than medium tannins and always this juicy acidity, which really is a hallmark of Noridabala. It expresses it's growing sites really well and particularly but it's tolerant of heat and salinity and soil types without ever dropping its acid. At high elevations, the cool nights can keep the sugar and hence the alcohol in check, but it always maintains a good dark color. On the other hand, if the production is too high or the wine making less than careful, narrowdovella can wind up with some gamey earthy aromas in the final wine, and then the tannins will feel rough instead of elvary. Oh, one interesting note. Nero Davala also had a nickname for decades as the Vino datagio. Much of the production would leave Sicily in big tanks on ships, and those ships were bound for northern regions, literally like Tuscany, Piedmont, even France, as a cutting wine, you know, to tell you, and it added color and fruitiness and alcohol to those famous wines in their cooler and leaner years. Now those wines remained famous and narrow davos stayed behind. Enjoying the warmth of the sicilian sun and its relative obscurity. Although nowadays, it has found a new official home. It's kinda cool in Australia. There are fifty vineyards now that have been planted in Southern Australia as winemakers there are, attempting at least successfully with Nero Davala to find grapes that can survive a new warming climate. Now I can remember my first taste in Nero Davala. In the mid nineties, I was working at a big Italian restaurant in the city of Chicago in the US that was very popular for weddings. And we would usually pour for the guests a sicilian white blend and what we called a sicilian red blend, but that was, in fact, Narodavala. It's no one knew the grade. It was probably labeled IGT back then anyway. But it did provide one constant thing about narrowdavala. In the glass, everyone likes it. For Americans with a limited wine vocabulary, it was pretty easy. Someone would say, I like pinot noir. Well, here's a juicy red with smooth tenons. Or I prefer merlot. Remember this was the nineties, well, this red has nice plummy fruit you want. I usually drink cabernet. But look, it is dark color. You notice the spice and the cherry flavors. No. So which Neurodawa should you look for? I am sure there are many examples in most export markets. And much of it, honestly, at the lowest price points, still come from the co ops, which are not always the best examples. I would look for more specific DOCs that have proven to produce more elevated styles. In the southeast, around its origins of Avila, you can find the DOCs of, around the towns of Noto, Zeta, and especially Eloto, where the pacino is considered a crew for Naradavala. The red soils around Vitaudia make for really smooth narrows, and those terrestrial docGs really are one of my favorite red wines. In the east of Sicily, the docks of Trapani, Delia Nivo Leli, and San Bukkah and Cecilia, are all well regarded. Actually, that would make an ideal road trip. No? Just drive completely around the island of Sicily You're tasting Maradavala from each DOC until you know it completely, like Neo in the matrix knows kung fu. And then you can experiment with all the potential food pairings along the way. On my first trip to Sicily, the winery I visited first about twenty years ago, They serve the basic Nordavala alongside a spada Agluroce. It's a grilled swordfish with the sweet and sour cappanata on top. And honestly, I have loved that seafood combination ever since for Nordavala. Like with seared tuna or blackened salmon that has that picante spice rub on top. Nirodaba rarely overpowers the dish. That same winery, by the way, it's called Pinchmedicotera in They also serve that day a single vineyard, Neda davela, probably with a lamb that I'm sure was good, but I recently opened one last magnum I've had of that wine, which was the vintage two thousand. They won Trebic Gary that year in their very first vintage, which if you know the gimvara rosso, You know, it's pretty rare. And, honestly, that wine, after over twenty years, it age beautifully, which really proves Neodavala can be elevated by particular producers. And, really, there are too many excellent wineries to mention just here in this podcast, but a few that really stand out and are worth searching out, Golphi is obviously first. Tasting through their single vineyard bottles near Odavala is a true master class in sight expression for the grape. Donna Fogata mixed there, Mila Note, Planeta, Centas Chilla, Toyota Montoni, winery, and Fido Macati all have stand out, Norodavala wines. Cost c o s is really the champion of all things from Victoria. A personal note was to my memory. The first narrow davala based wine that I ever spent real money on when I didn't have it. You know, it's blended with patacone, and some people say it's too oaky, but I really love the way it ages after a few years. And one other thing, if you can find it, I've seen it in Sicily, that Princhera winery, they make him a total classical brute. It's a hundred percent near a double zero dosage, and it really is one of the best sparkling wine in Sicily. And I think it's a sign of things that come for the new generation of their Adawa drinkers. Alright. Let's start playing that road trip. Ciao. Are you enjoying this podcast? Don't forget to visit our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp. For fascinating videos covering Stevie Kim and her travels across Italy and beyond, meeting winemakers, eating local food, and taking in the scenery. Now, back to the show. Okay Italian grape peaks. I'm Aaron, and we're going to Tuscany to study a unique grape through the lens of history. Caneo O'o is our grape of focus, and it should be more well known to Italian wine lovers. In through the sixteenth century, it was the main grape in the wines of Kianti. And so was the primary flavor of wines that were considered famous throughout Europe. The name probably derives from the Rosa Kanina, the floral fragrance of the dogwood rose. But it could also have been named for the deus Picularis, the dog days of August, the hottest point in the summer, maybe a bad omen. It was known by other names like Merla Caccione, Uva Fosca, but, canelo Onero was planted throughout Toskia. That's the historic etruscan lands that go from Lagutia through Tuscany to Latzio and umbria, and even now in umbria, it's often confused with colorino. But even when SanJves had gained more popularity in plantings, it was listed as the main grape in Barroni Ricosoli's chianti recipe, eighteen seventy three, Cannelinero was still twenty percent of the blend. So why did it fall so far to favor? Well, The grapes are thin skinned and late to ripen. Finification in the cellar can be very reductive. It gives unpleasant aromas, and honestly, though grape doesn't give much color to the final lime. Oh, by the way, the leaves are also very downy fuzzy. So spiders love to attack themselves, which can make harvesting and sorting the bunches unpleasant, I would guess. But really that all pales in the face of the death knell for Kinda Helinero. Feloxifra. The phylloxifra was not the direct bane for Kennelonero, but it is one of the European grapes that would not easily graft to American root stock. And so it was pretty much abandoned for vines that were easier to replant. And why then is there any kind of a little narrow left? Well, the loose bunches are not only mold and mild to resistant, but the shoots grow tall and vertical, which makes it easy to cultivate and work in the vineyard. Those bunches can be left to dry on the vine, even providing dry grapes, Now those used to add to stuck fermentations in cool vintages, although that's rarely a problem now. But, it is also very productive, especially most parts of Tuscany with sandy soils. But this is most important. Camelo Nero is the best blending partner for Sanjay Vasey. Grapes like colorino only enhance color. And all those allowed international bridals do nothing more than cover up the elegance of Sanjay. Katiello Narrow enhances the natural floral and red berry character of Sanjay in the blend while softening the Sanjay Tannons. It brings those rose petal balsamic notes and spices on the nose, flavors of red berry, sour cherry, and almost saline notes with its complimentary acidity. And that is why it is still prized by some producer seeking the more elegant side of Tusin wines. Now many of us more experienced Italian wine drinkers probably had a number of chiantis and classcos with some connie lomiro in the blend, especially when you consider Canayola and Corino were fuel plant to a San Diego. Today, it is much less common to see it listed on the labels or in the tech sheets, but there are a handful of producers still committed to canayola narrow. For me, the first I can remember tasting is a bottle called Mirooto from the Casto vecchio winery in San Cassiano, Tuscany. Now it was something that I sought out to taste at the Italy because I wanted to experience a hundred percent canola. It's a wine made from old vines, and it's delicious. It's a little pricey, picking up price. I would love someone to buy me a bottle of the number eight from b b gretz, but it is definitely not my price range. Other producers, though, like Castello de broglio, filigrati, and a poterie tendenzuela wine called Marlo, one of the other synonyms of canelo, those are producers that I would also like to find and taste. One when I do love, it's a risotto called made by the Montena doli winery in San Giovanniiano. Also famous for, Vanaccia. And I've had that a few times in Italy, but, I know it's also imported in a number of markets in the US. So what are we eating with our bottles and blends of Camille Leonero? Pretty easy, actually. Now with that risotto, I had I can remember grilled prawns in a cafe in Vanaza, and literally, I can still smell the air from that little Chiquitario harbor. But for the red blends, anything that you would have with Canti Glasgow or another Tusin blend with native grapes, you'd have with Paniola. It actually brings you to one last point. You know, the more that we support producers who are growing and using native grapes in their wines, the more of those grapes there will be for the next generations of wine enthusiasts to seek and enjoy. And that, my friends, is the essence of being an Italian grape geek, support and promote diversity of Italian wines because life needs more flavor, not less. Ariba delci and Betty Benny. Drinkwell. 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