Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ence of Pinot Nero may seem strange, but it
was brought to the area during the Napoleonic
wars. Mancini claims that “Pinot Nero doesn't
change the wine much,” but one wonders.
Albanella is a high-acid variety that never accu-
mulates much sugar, so it is best as a light,
lively wine offering pleasant citrusy and min-
eral notes. It ages remarkably well, and I have
had bottles from the fi rst years of this century
that are still in top shape.
to its very limited and inconsistent productivity.
In 2010, Carimi, Mercati, Abbate, and Sunseri
showed that a rare local variety called Fumisi is
synonymous with Albanello.
Today, Albanello is limited to sporadic vines
in the province of Syracuse and Ragusa. Ari-
anna Occhipinti of the eponymous winery
planted Albanello in 2005 in selected old vine-
yards around the town of Chiaramonte Gulfi ,
near Ragusa, in what has always been the heart
of Albanello's production zone. She is very
happy with the variety, fi nding it easy to work
with and resistant to common diseases. Gulfi
also grows a few vines of Albanello.
wines to try:
Fattoria Mancini** (Roncaglia).
Albanello
where it's found:
Sicily.
national registry
code number:
5.
color:
white.
Albanello is a largely unknown variety that
was never cultivated extensively, though its
winemaking potential has always been highly
thought of. It was mentioned as early as 1700 as
a high-quality variety and represents one of the
historical cultivars of the Syracuse area. The
wines, both dry and sweet styles, were praised
by Viala and Vermorel (1909). In the 1960s,
Italy's greatest wine writer, Luigi Veronelli,
described Albanello wines as excellent, alco-
holic (up to 19 percent alcohol, nonfortifi ed)
and expensive (unbelievable as it may seem, in
those days a bottle of albanello fetched as much
as a fi ne Barolo). The fi rst known albanello pro-
ducer was the noble Landolina family, who
began blending it with grillo in 1712. Another
longtime producer was the Cantina Aretusa,
and until the 1950s albanello was still being
bottled regularly by the Cantina Sperimentale
di Noto. In the nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, Albanello's production zone was
once limited to the southeastern corner of Sic-
ily, in Ragusa and Syracuse (the best were from
Noto, Syracuse, and Avola), but by the 1970s,
Pastena attested that it was grown and wine
made with it near Catania as well (1976). Salvo
Foti, Sicily's greatest winemaker and certainly
the greatest expert on the varieties of Etna, told
me that years ago a DOC was proposed for
Albanello wine but was refused, probably due
Which Wines to Choose and Why
There is no DOC wine. Albanello can be part of
IGT blends Avola, Camarro, Salina, Terre Sicili-
ane, and Valle Belice, none of them exactly
household names even in Italy. The wine is still
made locally in both a dry and a much better
air-dried version, for which the grapes are left
to dry eight days.
Sebastiano Gulino, who is an otolaryngolo-
gist in addition to a winemaker, deserves the
highest possible praise for having had the cour-
age to make a monovarietal Albanello wine, and
it may be hoped that Occhipinti will soon follow
suit. She says: “Even though it's not an aromatic
variety, Albanello tends to develop complex fl o-
ral and austere notes with age.” Frankly, since
her Albanello wine, SP68, has a hefty dose of
Moscato di Alessandria, organic winemaking
that results in low sulfur, and ten to fi fteen days
of maceration on the skins, I'm not sure how
anyone tasting her wine can grasp what
Albanello can and cannot give. Though it's a
very fi ne wine (Occhipinti is a tremendously
talented winemaker and one of the up-and-com-
ing stars of Italy) and the Italian wine guides
have been very generous in their praise, I think
more credit is due to the little-known Cantine
Gulino for truly pioneering work: their Pretiosa
is bright and crisp, with pretty fl oral and herb-
ally white stone-fruit aromas and fl avors. Salvo
Foti has planted a small vineyard of old-vine
Albanello massal selections taken from Gulfi 's
