If you went shopping for Italian white wine in the early 1980s you would have found mostly cheap and indifferent Orvieto, Frascati, Verdicchio, and Soave, and possibly a vintage of some Gavi if you were lucky. It wasn’t just that few people in this country took Italian white wines seriously; it appeared that even the Italians didn’t take them seriously. Italian winemakers desiring to tap into the international market began ripping out some of the dozens and dozens of local white varietals that had been cultivated for generations, centuries and even millennia and replacing them with the superstar varietals Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc.
This tide seems to have been stemmed in the last decade with winemakers refocusing their efforts and re-establishing many of these neglected and near-extinct varieties that have proven to produce amazing wines, some with long aging potential. Despite these efforts, Italian white wines still seem to garner little interest and little respect in this country. Even among wine sellers that devote a considerable amount of shelf space and promotional effort to Italian wines, whites get short shrift. Yes, the world of Italian white wines extends well beyond Soave and Pinot Grigio, the two wines that seem to dominate the shelves in this country.
I started out this past summer with a list of twelve white varietals that had very limited cultivation remaining in Italy, typically in a small corner of one region or another. Most of these grapes had significant plantings at one time or another during the peninsula’s recorded history. Over the last eight months or so, I was able to find and taste many of them, and even add to the list - although, some still elude me in my frugal refusal to spend $12 to $14 to ship a $20 bottle of wine. It appears that my local sources are exhausted for now, and although I am ready to move on to something red, I will continue to keep my eyes open for those remaining varietals.
I have been fortunate that there have only been a few clinkers in the wines that I have tasted. Most can be found in the $20 to $25 range, which makes them fairly affordable. Given my limited sampling, it would be difficult for me to make conclusive remarks about all of these varietals - tastings of multiple vintages and multiple winemakers would be required for that - unfortunately, three of the varietals, Roscetto, Torbato, and Nascetta, each currently has only one winemaker producing it. I can say that all these varietals are well worth seeking out and tasting, and I think that more than half of them will entice even the casual white wine drinker into buying them more once. Half of the wines were produced in steel tanks and the other half in various combinations of steel and oak. It is interesting to note that the winemakers who use steel tanks and keep the wines in extended contact with the lees, usually stirring them from time to time in a process the French call ‘battonage,’ have produced wines as rich and weighty as those usually attributed to aging in oak.
Petite Arvine, Timorasso, and Trebbiano Spoletino were my three favorites with Fiano, Pecorino, and Torbato following close behind. Two of the varietals, Pigato and Albana di Romagna, didn’t really appeal to me - I actually tasted two different Pigato wines and both were too lean and too acidic for my palate, and the Albana that I tasted left me indifferent at best. I have created a summary chart of the small whites I’ve tasted and a photo album of the labels for those who are interested.
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