Ep. 2020 Aleatico, Ansonica by Scott Thomas | Italian Grape Geek

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Our next great variety is called alvaro Albarosa is a red grape found mainly in Piedmont and mainly found in the provinces of Kunio, Alexandria, and Asti. Albarosa is interesting. Because it is a crossing of Chateauce and barbera. And I think many students know what a crossing is that it is taking two grapes of the same species. And in this instance, species is vidus Peninsulaifera, to produce another great variety. And this was done by Giovanni Dalmaso, and he was at the Comignano inological school in the Veneto, and this occurred in nineteen thirty eight. He thought he was crossing Nebula and Barbera to classic grape varieties from Piedmont, but recent DNA testing revealed that was actually Chatus and not Nebula. And the synonym for Chastuz in this area in the kind of the Aleksandria area is Nebula de Dronnio so that you can see that he was mistaken mostly because of the names of the grape varieties. And up until exact DNA testing, it was really difficult to see what these grapes looked like in the vineyard, mainly from Apologics. Chatus is also planted heavily in and around people. These wines are predominantly labeled as Piamante doc or they can be occasionally blended. In the vineyard, these berries are quite small. They're kind of medium sized and compact clusters. They ripen late with thick skins. And the vineyards that are planted on calcareous soil show kind of the most favorable results. In the glass, if you can imagine, Barbara, you show this opulent, red, bright ruby, with purple hues, you're kind of taking that from the barbera with very fruit forward aromas and flavors who have strawberry plum cherry, you know, ranging from red fruit to black fruit with some more subtle floral characteristics. These wines tend to be medium bodied with moderate tannin and medium high to moderate plus acidity. Concentration of fruit, though, when you taste it, is really evident, really extremely mouth filling of fruits. And of our moderate complexities. They make also still dry wines, also risopto, and some producers are experimenting with sparkling because you can produce sparkling with almost any Greek variety. Although, some of these wines are very difficult to find, especially the hundred percent varietal wines, can be challenging because the production is fairly low. These producers, that you could look out for, specifically McElaro, and the multi label that they produce. Desani and Maranco. At the table, I think the food pairing wines, these alvaro, especially pairs well with grilled or braised lamb, or any type of game meat, for instance, like guinea fowl and or aged cheeses. Although when I was living in Piedmont, I often was able to find Albarosa wines. And for me, with pizza, anything with red sauce because of the elevated, the acidity, they paired very, very well together. Now we talk about a red grape variety called Aliatico. Aliatico is in the category of an aromatic red grape variety, meaning that it it shows a a large amount of beautiful floral and aromatic intensity on the nose. This grape is mainly found in Tuscany, but in also in smaller quantities, in the areas around Latzio, the Marque, and Pulia. In Tuscany specifically, it's found on the Tuscan coast and included in archipelago, the islands, especially Elba and Capriya, In Latzio, Aliatzko can be found in close to Lago Bolcinea, which is another extinct volcano in the northern part of Latzio, very close to Umbria and the Orvieto region, which is now Laago Bolsonea, is they consider the largest and deepest crater lake in all of Europe as an extinct volcano. And you can find also Aliatico in the Marque under the pergola. It is roughly three hundred twenty five hectares planted in Italy, so there is not a large production of it. And the name is kind of unknown in debatable origin. As I mentioned previously, Aliatago is an aromatic red grape variety because it is the offspring of Moscato Bianco. So that means it is the sibling to La Croma de morro de alaba from the market, Breccato, which is primarily planted in Piedmont. And Malvasia De Sheriano, which is also planted in Piedmont. The alianto wines could be either dry or sweet and also Rosopto or Roso versions through as well. Either way, these wines tend to be deeply hewed thanks to a high percentage of Malvin, which we know is one of the darker anthocyanins that provide color from the grapes of the wines. In general, Aliatico will convey extreme amount of floral qualities to them in the glass, especially spicy wild strawberries, raspberries, even a little bit of cinnamon and rose, thanks to the terpene, which is included in that, which is geraniol. And for the sweet wines, Think about the exotic spices and nutmegs and anything from black cherry and cinnamon and cloves. These wines are extremely, aromatically impressive. In the vineyard, Aliatico is fairly early budding. It is drought resistant, which makes it perfect to be planted on the islands, which no, do not receive much rainfall throughout the year. They are high and vigor and tightly packed clusters with medium sized bears. The sites that have showcased sandy soils tend to be more aromatically intense and higher in phenolics as well. On the islands of Tuscany, in the areas of Elba and Caprahiya, Grapes are generally processed and the traditional method of air drying on shelves. This is for producing aceto ones. So the grapes are harvested, and then air dried either directly or indirectly in the sun, and these grapes are generally harvested towards the end of August, in which they retain a generous amount of acidity, but also allow dehydration to occur to produce more of the besee style, you know, sweeter style wines. This is an extremely, laborious and time consuming process. Therefore, the sweet wines of Elba are very difficult to find and quite costly to produce. Of all the DOCs to look out for. You could look for the wines in and around Lago Bolsona, and those are included in the Aliatico de graduli, Dio doc, Elba Aliatico Pasito, which is in the island of Elba as well. Progola doc in Marque, and producers to look for from Elba, Aquabona, producing some of the best Pasito wines in Italy, and those are under the Pasito Reserve DOC, Capriya, you can find the producer La Piana for a dry rosato, which is extremely concentrated and beautiful style of rosette. And from the dock of Gradli, look for Trebalti, These wines are both passito and rosato wines. Food pairing, the sweet styles from Elba, they are classically paired with a bread that or dessert that is produced from Elba. It's called this is a typical wine from the Isalad alba, which is served around holiday times. It's a soft and slightly leavened bread with no eggs, and its origins date back to the thirteenth century, and even some of these breads are colored and flavored with alliatico grapes, which gives it kind of a red hue, but it does pair extremely well with a sweeter style dessert, especially being the sweet one. Next, we're talking about the grape and Sonica And Sonica is the proper name for this grape, but it does have synonym including Inzolia, Uva Delguilio, and and Sonica. It is a white grape, It is also included in the Tannic white grape category, meaning that it does have some astringency and tan included in his profile. And, really, it is an emblematic island variety that loves the sea. I love this quote from Katina Barbada, and it's Inzolia, which this is from Sicily now, is a vigorous vine that is resistant to drought, and it can live and produce in highly saline environments. Those main features make ansonica ideal grape to be grown along the coastal areas of the Mediterranean, where this variety finds the best terroir for perfect adaptation. It is no coincidence that Inzolia is also present in Tuscany mainly found on the isla de Guilio, where microclimates are very similar to the sicilian one. So as this quote would suggest, and Sonica, AKA, in Zolia, is found mainly in Sicily, and in Tuscany on the islands of Gileo and Elba again. In Gileo, especially, you can still see the remnants of the Grepe. These are handmade terraces made of dry stone walls. And on a personal note, I just took it an endeavor to the island of Gileo about three weeks ago, and you see an Sonika almost everywhere. It is the one great variety that they produce in this area. Many of the vineyards are trained singularly to poles. So it's kind of an albarllo style, if you will, but there is one pole. It's not necessarily trillist as you would think of modern trilusing, throughout the world. And these wines are absolutely incredible. They produce wines that are in general, for all the way from sweet to dry all the way to oxidative style. And then going back to kind of its genetic relationship that it is related to the many varietals in Sicily, including Grillo, Frappatto and Norello Moschaleza. The name and Sonica likely stems from the French word, sory, which is translated to dark or gold because the grapes turn dark or golden when they are very ripe in color. It is an ancient variety, an old variety that is referenced back to sixteen ninety six, but there are some sicilian producers that have said that perhaps this variety was brought by the Greeks between this eighth and seventh century BC, and it has evolved over time. Although that hypothesis in theory has not been proven true. And Soneca is also very popular as a table grape, as it remains quite plump, with high amounts of sugar, which makes it quite enjoyable to eat as a table grape. Some challenges, not challenges, but that are typical, you could say. And Sonica is fairly low in acidity, and it tends to drop acidity quickly, especially in much warmer plyments. So harvest date needs to be very attentive to, and it is a naturally tannic white grape variety, as I mentioned before, and like some other grape varieties, especially from the Sicily, like Qatar, for instance, and has a tendency to oxidize fairly quickly. But in general, the structure of Ansonica or Enzolia wines derives from the tan. Now there are two different styles. We're talking about Sicily here, and we're talking about the islands of, Tuscany, and each of these areas produce more of a a slightly different style of wine. So in Sicily, these wines could be more light embodied. We can call them easy drinking, fresh, more citrus driven with a little bit of spice notes, you could say. And in Elba or Guilio in the Tuscan Coast, especially these wines tend to be much more full bodied, extremely concentrated with a saline kind of nose to them and flavor profile. And oftentimes these wines could be darker colored, even bordering on orange for the much adopti wines, which have been a little bit more rich, you could say. But in general, a good producer will harvest these wines early enough to retain the acidity while counter balancing with the weight and richness, if you will. In Sicily, an in Zonika, we could call it in Zonika, in Sicily, is included in almost all the sicilian DOCs, but it is especially important in Marsala. And prior to Odium arriving in Sicily, and Zolia was the most planted grape variety in Sicily, and it was historically one of the most important grape varieties in the Marcela blend. In Elba in Guilio, this wine has historic importance, and it continues again to be the primary white grape that has grown on these two islands. Also included any DOC of Costa Bell Arjintaro, which is just in the southern end of the Marima, then you can find some and Soneca grapes grown there as well. Producers to look after in Elba Aquabwana producing both dry and sweet from the island of Guilio. I had the a fortune to taste their LaFantutia which produced some amazing styles of dry white wine. As I mentioned earlier, these wines are quite concentrated. It was slightly oxidative than style. But if you'd like a wine to ponder over, these wines are absolutely for you. These, reminded me of of some of the wines like timorazo with the kind of structurally speaking and even albana for that matter. Another producer from Guilio, one that is certainly more distributed in the world is Bibi Gritz. He grew up in Gilio and has several vineyards there and several wines in homage to that. In Sicily, within Zolio, you can look for producers of Caruso and Minini, kind of a modern producer who making still dry wines, also still dry wines, and a really amazing advocate for In Zolia as a great variety. And if you haven't looked at Katina Barbara's blog, I highly recommend you check that out because she is a wealth of knowledge and really provides a lot of information, historical, and vineyard, and inological information on, in Zolium, and other grapes that are native to Sicily, as well as Salier de Latour from Tasca family, producing dry still wines from close to Palermo. You can also find many of the in Sonica fractions in Marcella blends and pellegrino, more specifically, the producer there. And as far as food pairing wines go. I mean, it really depends on the style of wine, but because in Sicily, these wines tend to be a little bit more fresh. You can pair with shellfish or even richer oily fishes like tuna or blue fish but certainly with the brighter style, anything with salads, fennel, you know, orange, citrus, you know, the classic really light style of sicilian cuisine, as well as fresh vegetables, And from the islands of Elba or Rioo, I've seen these wines paired with also with fish, but more fish that have been fried that have a slightly more kind of fattier element to it, and they pair very, very well. That concludes our tour of Alianico, Albana, Albosa, Ali Africa, and in Soneca. And that is all for today. Thank you for listening in for these five grape varieties. I hope you've enjoyed this journey through Italian Native grapes. That's it. 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 donate in through Italian wine podcast dot com. 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