SARDINIA |
Trapani |
Foggia
APULIA
Mount Etna Catania
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GH: Which Southern Italian grape varieties do you personally like to work with?
SC: Today, Italy has over 1,000 native grape varieties available, which explains the great diversity in our country!
My personal preference is working in Campania, Calabria, Apulia, and Sicily, so I can speak only about the varieties of these four regions. In Campania, the big challenge is Greco. I love this salty varietal, its golden skin, and its amazing ability to evolve and age: it needs time to concede its complex personality. In Calabria, the Magliocco grape is the variety that is most attractive to me: it produces wines that are earthy, rich, and complex. In Apulia, the Verdeca grape represents a professional challenge to me— a chance to re-evaluate a minor white variety from the South. It produces wines that are perfect for the market, with low alcohol and rich citrus and Mediterranean vegetal aromas. In Apulia, I like Primitivo and Susumaniello: the Primitivo for its expression, representing a warm wine from the South— full-bodied and extraordinarily fresh; and the Susumaniello, like the
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Verdeca, as a professional challenge. It is a rare and less well-known variety.
I love Sicily, its sea, its towns and countryside, its history and the people. Grillo is a great varietal, rich in pre-fermentation aromas, similar to those present in Sauvignon Blanc. Carricante, cultivated on the slopes of Etna, is attractive for its unique perfumes that are almost defective, but that make it unique. I love Nero d’ Avola with its young, rich expression of blueberry and raspberry! Frappato is a huge technical challenge as it is a delicate varietal with very thin skin( dangerous in the last phase of maturation because of its extreme delicacy).
GH: What are your thoughts on the use of international grape varieties such as Chardonnay and Cabernet Sauvignon in South Italian wines?
SC: Unfortunately, when the South started is viticultural renaissance, it made the error of introducing international varieties. Many of these varieties failed, particularly following the increase in temperature in the last 10 years. Chardonnay cultivated in the South of Italy, in my experience, is excessively alcoholic. Chardonnay is a varietal“ of light” and not“ of heat,” and therefore the South isn’ t its ideal territory. Merlot also failed, producing high-alcohol, super-mature wines, without freshness. Cabernet Sauvignon matures later so it had
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better results in Sicily, but it will never reach the quality it reaches in Tuscany. The only international varietal that is at home in Sicily and has had good results is Syrah. The great heat of the Sicilian summers produces a complex and rich Syrah with spicy aromas of black pepper that I find fascinating
GH: How do you approach making wines in the different regions of South Italy?
SC: Every variety has its own character, problems, and needs that must be understood. If we want to create wines with a strong regional character, it is necessary to create a process that has as its goal wines with a strong identity.
The main discriminators in white wines are the quality of the skin and the balance of acidity in the must. The prefermentation phase— and the use of different techniques such as contact time between the pulp and skins, cold or not cold— fundamentally affect the personality of each specific white grape. Following alcoholic fermentation, a big variable in the enological process is the malolactic fermentation, which depends on the amount of acidity, the area of production, and the variety. Last but not least, the management of the fine lees, even in the case of white wines and wines made with indigenous yeasts, can impart extra layers of complexity. This is an open frontier that will no doubt be discussed in the next few years.
( continued)
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