Refosco - A thick plank in Friuli’s red wine platform
The Friuli Venezia Giulia region in Italy’s extreme northeast is often crowned with the laurel of “Italy’s finest white wine region” and it PROBABLY is (though Campania might put up a REAL good fight in the final game), but Friuli possesses just as many unique and noble red varieties, and though it seems perpetually ready to be acknowledged for that fact, thus far, the fanfare has not come. So to push Friuli’s status, let’s have a look at what is probably Friuli’s most important red grape variety, REFOSCO!
The name Refosco, in most cases, is an incomplete one. The name of the grape that is most often used to make the finest “Refosco” wines in Friuli is most completely named “Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso” which means “Refosco with the red stem”, though it seems quite clear why most winemakers, drinkers, critics, etc. use the shortened version - the name Refosco is trouble enough for some folks…As with so many ancient varieties, there has been a considerable amount of both natural mutation as well as human-induced cross-breeding that has left the contemporary Refosco family with several “siblings”. As implied above, Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso is considerd to be the most “noble” member of the family, but there are Refosco varieties that have normal, old green stems, as well as a Croatian/Slovenian branch of the family that goes by the name of “Teran” in the former country, and as “Refosk” in the latter. Unfortuantely, in many cases, in both places, red- and non-red-stemmed Refosco vines are planted side by side in the same vineyards. Further, Refosco is cultivated a bit in neighboring Veneto under the name “Terrano”, as well as a step further south in the Romagna region under the name “Cagnina”. And perhaps not unexpectedly the noble red stem variety and the lesser clones and cousins are found cheek by jowl in both of these locations as well. And just in case you’re not yet completely confused, the even rarer “Mondeuse” variety from the Jura region in France has been proven to be none other than Refosco, though precisely how and when it got to the Jura is lost to history.
Refosco dal Penduncolo Rosso seems to have, judging by references made to what is almost surely the same variety, a very long history in Friuli. The earliest references to the variety were made by the Roman historian Pliny the Elder in which he refers to a black-skinned grape with a red stem that produces good wine and which was the favorite wine grape of Livia, Augustus Caesar’s second wife. Later, in an early renaissance work entitled The Annals of Friuli published in 1390 by one Francesco di Manzano, the author also makes reference to a variety that is almost surely RdPR.
The latest genetic data on Refosco has shown that it is the parent of another northeastern vine variety called Marzemino. And while it is said that the apple never falls far from the tree (or the grape from the vine), the two varieties are not exactly identical, or even fraternal twins. RdPR ripens very late making it quite prone to early-onset cold weather in the autumn. On the upside however, the vine is highly resistant to rot and molds that rainy autumns can bring. Refosco is also quite adaptable in terms of preferred terrain, it being equally comfortable in both hilly and flat vineyard sites.
RdPR produces wines that are decidedly more acidic than tannic, and because of its natural paucity of tannins, many producers have experimented with aging Refosco in small, new oak barrels though unlike another northern Italian acidic variety Barbera, Refosco seems not to be able to carry the oaking as well as Barbera does, so many winemakers have abandoned its use. RdPR’s color leans toward an almost purple-black garnet. It is a medium to full-bodied wine that most often shows aromas and flavors of dark fruits like blackberry, black cherry, plum, and spices.
Due to Refosco’s high acidity levels, it is very much a “food wine” (hell, almost every Italian wine is a “food wine”) and pairs very well with all types of rich foods, but it makes an especially felicitous match with grilled pork sausages, dishes that prominently feature mushrooms, especially the more “exotic” varieties, polenta al ragu`, and poultry stewed in dark, rich sauces.
As always, if ayone picks up any of the wines on offer below, please post your tasting notes here as comments.
TOM CIOCCO
Xarel-lo - Blanc Catalan
The WHAAAAT?! I bet lots of you think I’m making this one up, or maybe you’re mumbling to yourselves that you didn’t realize that there were any vineyards on Mars, but I assure you that this IS the name of a real grape variety…
Let’s get the pronunciation out of the way first - the name is pronounced “Charrel LO”, and the grape is native to Catalonia (the Alella [where the vine is known as Pansa Blanca] and Penedes regions especially) in northeastern Spain, and not surprisingly, the name is Catalan too. It is a white-skinned variety.
If anyone has had any contact with this grape in any form, it would be via Catalonia’s super-value, champagne-method sparkler, Cava. Along with Xarel-lo, Cava most often includes two other native Catalan/Spanish varieties, namely Parellada and and Macabeu, which is none other than the more familiarly named Viura, Rioja’s workhorse white variety.
Xarel-lo is a strapping lad (or lass). It is both highly vigorous (lots of foliage), and highly productive (lots of fruit), so to get the best from it, growers have to prune back both the leaves to expose the fruit to more sun (but too much leaf-thinning is dangerous in the blazing Catalan sun), as well as a fair amount of green harvesting (cutting off unripe bunches to intensify a vine’s fruit production). Another of Xarel-lo’s pecadillos is its almost freakishly early bud-break date, which can put an entire crop in jeopardy if the season’s Spring is particularly cold.
In the glass, Xarel-lo usually shows good weight and body, but with a balancing acidity that helps the grape avoid flabbiness. The flavor/aroma profile of Xarel-lo skews toward notes of peach, apricot, almond, and a certain dried wildflowers/dried grass quality.
Xarel-lo wines pair well with poultry and richer, white-fleshed dishes, especially ones prepared with herbs and/or cream sauces.
As I began the piece, varietally bottled Xarel-lo is not a common bottle to turn up, but more and more producers are bottling it still (not sparkling) and unblended, like the one below…As always, if you grab a bottle of this (or any other!) Xarel-lo, please post your tasting notes here…
TOM CIOCCO
Baga - The tough kid turns sweet
Very few Portuguese grape varieties come tripping off of the tongue, even off of the tongues of real serious oenophiles. Aside from the fact that Portugal has only recently begun to make some waves in the greater wine wolrd, the Portuguese wine culture is famous for its blending skills, and rightly so. In fact most Portuguese wines are blends, so while there are some “leading men” varieties, there are very few “one man shows”. The Baga grape is one of the exceptions (though we will see it blended in one of the recommended labels below).
Baga (which means “berry” in Portuguese) is nearly synonymous with the region from which it comes - Bairrada. Bairrada is located in north-central Portugal, bordering Dao on the east, and reaching almost to the Atlantic ocean in the west. The Baga variety accounts for over 90% of the total amount of black grapes grown and harvested in the region.
The variety is very thick-skinned as well as very vigorous (producing large amounts of foliage), but is quite sensitive to a common vine malady called powdery mildew, and despite its thick skins, is also fairly prone to rot in Bairrada’s cool, damp climate which is further exacerbated by its late ripening date. Baga’s wines are famous for their youthful “fire”, derived from the formidable levels of both acids and tannins present in the fruit as well as those tannins that are derived from the stems which in Bairrada are less commonly removed before maceration and fermentation. So much fire can Baga display that most of it has to be barrel aged for several years, and then further fined in the bottle for at times up to a decade or beyond depending on a given wine’s particular style and the quality of the vintage to really tame its “wild child” structure.
In the glass, as was mentioned above, Baga is a BEAR in its youth unless full de-stemming and a partial carbonic maceration is employed. But after the requisite stint of aging, Baga wines shed their tough shells, becoming deep and sweet. More than a few critics have likened well-aged Bairrada Baga to a slightly more rustic Barolo. The variety most often sports flavors and aromas of both red and black currants as well as an earthy mixed berry quality, and a general bold, powerful mouthfeel.
And thought there are a bevy of Baga growers and winemakers in Bairrada, the unchallenged doyen of the zone is a man that is known to be almost as prickly as the wines he makes: Luis Pato. Pato has been the unquestioned “point man” for the variety and the region for years, and his wines still dominate both the domestic and foreign markets in the Bairrada category.
Baga is undoubtedly a wine for meat, pairing especially well with Bairrada’s great culinary specialty, leitao (a roasted suckling pig served with a hot sauce called piri-piri), but it also works very well with barbecued beef or lamb dishes as well.
The first and the third Baga wines listed below are drinking quite well now. The second and fourth would benefit from a bit more cellaring. As always, if anyone picks some of these wines up, please post your tasting notes here as comments…
Luis Pato Bairrada Baga/Touriga Nacional blend
Fer Servadou - Southwest France’s Iron man
It’s a shame that France has become known for only a small percentage of its wealth of grape varieties. Certainly France does not possess Italy’s or even Portugal’s vinous diversity, but there is far more to be found growing in the French viticultural landscape than the boilerplate, “gold standard” like varieties Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Noir, and Syrah…
So it’s time to give a little love to some of these lesser known varieties, and one such variety is Fer Servadou…Also known as just Fer, as well as Mansois (in the Marcillac zone), Braucol or Brocol (in Marcillac), and Pinenc (in Madiran), the grape is quite widely planted, but only throughout the southwest. In addition to Marcillac and Gaillac, the variety can be found in varying concentrations in Bergerac as well as in the Aveyron department zones of Entraygues and Estaing. Marcillac is the only zone in which Fer is the sole variety permitted; in Gaillac, Fer (there known as Braucol) shares the stage with Syrah and another southwest rarity called Duras. In Madiran, Fer can be a minorty blending component with the larger players namely Tannat and the two Cabernets.
The name “Fer” (meaning “Iron” in French) is derived from the vines famously hard, tough trunks. The vine’s precise origins however are not as clear as the roots of its name, but there is some indication through some preliminary DNA analysis that it may be a distant relative of Cabernet Franc, but this is still unclear. And as is the case with so many of these “marginal” varieties, especially in France where there is a clear, hard and fast hierarchy of varieties from “noble” to “local curiosities”, Fer’s future is uncertain, since with the exception of the Marcillac AOC, the variety is only an optional component in the respective blends in every other zone in which the grape is cultivated. The total acreage of Fer in Madiran and Gaillac for example, has diminished significantly over the last decades in favor of the more “marketable” permissable varieties.
In the glass, Fer’s wines are quite deeply colored (purplish), more tannic than acidic, with a medium to full body. The variety often shows flavors and aromas of dark fruits (especially berries), meat juices, smoke, and a certain black peppery character. Varietal bottlings of Fer are usually best consumed within 3 to 4 years of the vintage date.
By the way, the pictures I’ve been posting for each of the grapes that I’ve profiled are photos of the actual variety under consideration, not just some generic “bunch of grapes” pic…I hope that you all find the actual “look” of the grapes, leaves etc. as interesting as I do…carry on…
And in case you’ve gotten curious enough to lay down a few skins to try some Fer wine, here you go:
Petite Sirah - One of California’s original varieties
If the topic of California red wine comes up, the lion’s share of the conversation will almost surely revolve around Cabernet Sauvignon. There is no place in the entire world that is more closely associated with this variety, and in my opinion this includes Cabernet’s homeland of Bordeaux where it is never bottled unblended.
California Cabernet can, and in many cases, does make world-class wine in in the Sunshine State, but Cabernet, though it has been in California since the 1880s, has only become California’s most favored son since the 1960s. Before Cabernet Sauvignon, there was our hero, Petite Sirah (or Petit Sirah, or Petite Syrah, etc.).
What is Petit Sirah? By now, Petit Sirah’s convoluted origins have become the topic of many ampelographical arguments, and though there is far more agreement than disagreement on where this variety comes from, suffice it say that Peteit Sirah’s PRECISE familiy tree is still not fully settled. Here is what is clear…Petit Sirah is a crossed (and re-crossed) variety. Petit Sirah (often affectionately called “Pet” by growers and drinkers alike) seems to be the result of some series of crossings of:
- True SYRAH (a.k.a. Shiraz in Australia) which by most accounts is native to the northern Rhone
- PELOURSIN which is a very obscure southern French variety that is almost completely extinct in its native land.
- DURIF which itself had been frequently misidentified as Petit Sirah. What is interesting is that DNA profiling tests done on Durif have revealed that Durif is an offspring of Peloursin.
- A cross of just Peloursin and Durif that had in many cases been identified as “pure” Petit Sirah.
But even though now that Petit Sirah’s family tree is well documented, there are undoubtedly still quite a few vineyards that are populated with some (or even all) of Petit Sirah’s parents directly alongside with “full blooded” Petit Sirah. This may in part explain why Petit Sirah wines can vary quite widely in style.
Much of the Petit Sirah in California is found in Napa, Sonoma, Amador, and Mendocino counties (currently totaling about 3,500 acres), and even though there are no Italian cultivars in Petit Sirah’s genetic history, most of the plantations of Petit Sirah are found in the old vineyards that were orginally planted by California’s earliest Italian immigrants, though in many of these same vineyards there are (or at least were) rows of Barbera and Sangiovese too. Aside from California’s quintessential grape variety Zinfandel, which are surely the oldest vines in the state, Petit Sirah plantings are likely next in line in terms of age, with a fair number of 100+ year old vines that are still producing fruit and wine. These old vine Petits yield the most balanced and complete wines, and they are are true California viticultural treasure.
Before producers like Foppiano and Guenoc had done extensive research on PS’s clonal variations, soil and site preferences, etc. the results from which have allowed producers to tame PS’s wild, rough side, Petit Sirah was (and still is) a perfect blending partner for Zinfandel (the first varietal bottling of Petit Sirah was made by Concannon in the 1961 vintage, by the way), with Petit Sirah providing a stiff backbone and certain “pebbly” texture to the often thick, soft, and flamboyant Zin fruit. The “problem” with Petit Sirah is an abundance of both acids and tannins, both of which can be said to be “coarse” or at least “rustic” if not properly cropped (limited yields) and planted on the right sites (Pet’s cultivational “sweet spot” seems to be found on the steep and dry hillside sites in Sonoma and Mendocino counties), and even when Pet gets all that it wants, it’s still definitely not a wine for those who like New World Pinot Noir or even Aussie Shiraz. Petit Sirah is a decidedly “masculine” grape with a formidable, sometimes “scratchy” structure and mouthfeel, deep, black/purple color, and moderately to very high alcohol with a flavor/aroma profile of black fruits, cracked pepper, coffee, smoke, and sap.
Petit Sirah pairs exceptionally well with BIG foods - the bigger the better - especially marinated and grilled red meats, furred game, well-spiced stews, and hard, aged cheeses, especially those made from sheep’s milk.
Here is a complete list of all of the Petit Sirah wines currently in stock at Wine Library. As always, if you pick up a bottle or two, feel free to post your tasting notes here if you’re so inclined.
TOM CIOCCO
