Major Native and Traditional Grape Varieties - Native Wine Grapes of Italy - page 165

essary, as many Aleatico vines in the fi eld are
virus infested, particularly with fanleaf virus.
Given that Aleatico often lives in hot and dry
microclimates, it does best with rootstocks
such as 110 R that allow its roots to dig deep for
water. It's also sensitive to magnesium and
potassium defi ciency in the soil. Due to the
many different areas it grows in, harvest dates
vary, but the grapes are usually ripe by the end
of September.
Aleatico is found in numerous Italian
regions, and is most common in Tuscany,
Puglia, Lazio, and Marche. The area under vine
is unfortunately declining: in 1991, Aleatico
represented only 0.18 percent of the total hec-
tares devoted to red varieties in Tuscany; these
have been further reduced to the current sixty
hectares, though there are a little less than two
hundred in all of Italy. In Tuscany, Aleatico
grows on the coast (in Livorno and Grosseto),
and on the islands of Elba and Capraia. These
two islands represent true grand crus for the
variety and their aleaticos are some of Italy's
greatest wines. The two terroirs are quite differ-
ent, however: according to winemaker Leo-
nardo Conti, who works with the La Piana
estate on Capraia, Capraia is drier and fresher
than Elba, with better drainage. All the pheno-
logical phases occur later on Capraia, so the
harvest also occurs later.
In the Marche, the confusingly named wine
Vernaccia di Pergola is also made with Aleatico,
which was brought to the town in 1234 by its
founders, former citizens of Gubbio. The
efforts of passionate farmers and producers of
today and times past—including Guido
Bruschi, Giovanni Orfei, Giulio Fulvi, and
Francesco Tonelli—led to the DOC Vernaccia
di Pergola in 2005. Today this Aleatico biotype
is also grown in other small towns around Per-
gola: San Lorenzo in Campo, Fratterosa, Fron-
tone, and Serra Sant'Abbondio. A grand cru for
Vernaccia di Pergola is Grifoleto.
Aleatico is also grown in France (Corsica),
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, California, and Aus-
tralia. In Australia, Aleatico is not a recent
arrival: it was fi rst planted in the Mudgee area

roughly one hundred years ago by Thomas
Fiaschi.

Which Wines to Choose and Why
The best Aleatico wines are those of Elba, but
the area around Lazio's Lake Bolsena is quickly
gaining a reputation, as a new generation of
Lazio winemakers turn heads with many lovely
sweet wines. Ludovico Botti of the Tre Botti
estate even devoted his enology school thesis to
Aleatico, and shares with his close friend An-
drea Occhipinti of the Occhipinti estate a pas-
sion for Aleatico that dates back to their school
days. Occhipinti has taken his experimentation
with Aleatico to the point where he now pro-
duces an excellent, if rather full-bodied and
pinkish-tinged, white wine (appropriately
enough called Alter Ego) from this red-berried
grape. In the Marche, winemaker Alberto Maz-
zoni believes the Pergola biotype of Aleatico
gives a much more intense, richer wine than
those of the other regions.
Aleatico can be either dry or sweet, and it
makes outstanding rosati; the wines have
strong aromas and fl avors reminiscent of a red-
berried Muscat. They are also always very
deeply hued, thanks to a high percentage of
malvin in the skins—and since this is the most
stable of the fi ve main grape pigments, the
wines tend to remain dark over time. Dry and
rosato wines are delicately fl oral, with spicy aro-
mas reminiscent of wild strawberry, raspberry,
cinnamon, and rose (mainly thanks to geraniol,
though Aleatico wines have high levels of cit-
ronellol and nerol too). Don't make the mistake
of thinking that Aleatico rosatos are among the
overly sweet and simple rosé or blush wines;
nothing could be further from the truth. Alea-
tico rosatos are splendid wines, with abundant
aromas and fl avors, a crisp texture and bright
acids; fruity and fl oral, they deliver a touch of
spice that makes them crowd pleasers and very
versatile with food.
Clearly, though both rosato and dry rosso
wines are increasingly made with Aleatico,
it's the sweet wines that fi rst grabbed the atten-
tion of wine lovers everywhere. The aromatic