Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Ansonica is characterized by large, pyrami-
dal bunches and oval berries. It prefers
medium- or low-expansion training systems
(Guyot and
alberello
) with short or mixed prun-
ing, and ripens early, in late August or early
September. It adapts well to the hot and arid
environments typical of central and southern
Italy. However, though it tolerates drought, it is
sensitive to high summer temperatures; it
shows a moderate sensitivity to
Plasmopara viti-
cola
and oidium.
the time the wine was bottled under the Coste
dell'Argentario DOC). In 1999, Francesco Car-
fagna also bought vineyards and invested heav-
ily in a winery, in the process renewing over
twelve kilometers of dry stone walls. Ansonica
on Giglio has become so successful that it is
rarely sold in bottles there, but rather as bulk
wine, in demijohns or similarly large formats;
because of supply and demand, the wine
fetches high price regardless (six euros per
liter) and so producers have little incentive to
waste money on bottles, fancy labels, corks, and
capsules, as all they produce literally fl ies out
the door.
For me, best of all is Elba Ansonica, a
medium- to full-bodied white wine of deep
golden hue and delicately herbal, yellow apple,
and dried apricot aromas and fl avors, with a
saline personality and plenty of chewy extract.
When the grapes are air-dried, Elba makes an
interesting, at times outstanding,
passito
ver-
sion, though I usually prefer the dry wines. I
fi nd the wines of Elba and Giglio to be more
concentrated, saline, and alcoholic than Sicilian
versions, which are more citrusy and much
lighter-bodied. Nowadays, Ansonica is such a
popular grape and wine that many producers
have started making it along the Tuscan coast,
as an alternative to Vermentino. Interestingly,
the well-known Moris Farm estate once pro-
duced an Ansonica wine called Sinfonia in the
late 1980s on the Tuscan coast: production was
stopped because it didn't sell. Back then, thin,
tart white wines like Galestro were all the rage,
and so a tannic, medium-bodied white wine
with plenty of character like Ansonica stood no
chance. How times change.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
In Sicily, most Ansonica wines are from Calta-
nissetta, Palermo, and Agrigento, but it is
included in the varietal makeup of almost every
Sicilian DOC—examples include Alcamo, Con-
tessa Entellina, and Delia Nivolelli. From the
Tuscan coast, DOC wines such as Elba and
Costa dell'Argentario are good. Giglio, a small
but beautiful island that is also a national park,
has only fi fteen hundred inhabitants, so quan-
tities of its wine are limited. Ansonica is also
part of the Calabria Bivongi Bianco blend.
Ansonica is the rare example of a naturally
tannic white wine. Furthermore, it has low
natural acidity, which tends to drop very quickly
upon approaching full ripeness. “Wines with
natural total acidities of six grams per liter are
unheard of,” says Marilena Barbera of Cantina
Barbera, a high-quality producer in Sicily. In
the past, especially in Sicily, Ansonica was
always picked too ripe, but as it was rarely made
into a fresh, monovarietal wine but rather used
in the Marsala blend (the oxidative character of
which suits Ansonica well), this didn't matter
much. However, modern viticultural practices
and a better understanding of the variety's
strength and weaknesses have recently led to a
slew of bright, crisp Sicilian Ansonica wines.
On Giglio's twenty-one square kilometers of
beautiful but barren rock, Ansonica wine pro-
duction risked extinction as recently as fi fteen
years ago. In 1987, Nunzio Danei effectively
resurrected Giglio's wine scene when he bot-
tled a Giglio Ansonica wine in his cellar in
Orbetello, a coastal town on mainland Italy (at
wines to try:
For Giglio try: La Fontuccia***
(Senti, a truly excellent dry white; Nantropò, a
mesmerizing sweet wine made from Ansonica
grapes air-dried for forty days), Altura estate**
(Ansonaco Carfagna), and the two wines from
Greppe del Giglio. For Elba, try: Acquabona***,
La Chiusa** (Ansonica Passito), Acquacalda*
(an ansonica that has 15 percent Vermentino),
and Cecilia* (an ansonica that has 10 percent
