Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
though it isn't produced every year. Its owner,
Giulio Santarelli, believes that noble rot also
played an important role in Cannellinos of the
past: “The grapes for Cannellino were tradition-
ally laid on straw mats in grottos and caverns,
which have specifi c microclimates, and noble
rot was common there. Today nobody bothers
with that anymore.” Bellone loves noble rot so
much that older farmers in the Cori area like to
say that “it needs to be picked as soon as it
smokes,” because the bunches are attacked very
quickly by the
Botrytis cinerea,
and consequently
look dusty or smoky on windy days.
wines in the world. The stalk is twisted in Sep-
tember and the grapes are left on the vine until
November, to lose about 50 percent of their
water content. A good late-harvested or air-
dried bellone resembles high-quality Sau-
ternes, with differences: more honey, sweet
spice, and peach aromas and fl avors, less saf-
fron and tropical fruit. Without doubt, it is—or
can be—one of Italy's three or four greatest
sweet wines.
wines to try:
Must-tries are by Marco Carpi-
neti*** (the dry Collesanti, which is all Bel-
lone; Capolemole Bianco, which is 60 percent
Bellone and 40 percent other local varieties,
and though much improved, far inferior to
Collesanti; and the remarkable Ludum, which
is 100 percent late-harvested Bellone) and
Cincinnato*** (their Castore is aged in stain-
less steel, and has aromas of yellow peach and
green apple; their Bellone, with hazelnut,
honey, and tropical fruit fl avors, undergoes a
gentle oaking in large, used barrels). These
wines are not just delicious, but remarkably
inexpensive. Also worth trying are Alfredo
Mastropietro* (Uvapane) in San Vito Romano,
and Terre delle Ginestre* (Lentisco, aged in
used chestnut barrels in an effort to smoothen
out the wine's strong personality).
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Bellone is unfortunately rare today. It can still
be found in the vineyards of the Castelli
Romani, where it constitutes up to 10 percent of
the Frascati and Marino wine blends, though
rules for the Marino and Nettuno DOCs allow
the theoretical possibility of making a 100 per-
cent Bellone wine. It is also found in the seaside
around Anzio and Nettuno, and especially
around Cori, where it is most common. Cori is
a small town located about forty-fi ve minutes
southwest of Rome, and is one of the up-and-
coming, truly exciting wine production areas of
Italy. The best Bellone wines, and the only ones
made with 100 percent Bellone, are IGT Cori,
an area already famous for high-quality tobacco,
the Moro di Cori.
The wine has a telltale luscious texture and
juicy acidity (wines without this creaminess or
resiny mouthfeel are poorly made), and delight-
ful honeyed, citrus, and tropical fruit aromas
and fl avors. Bellone's large berries are very thin
skinned but rich in pectin and polyphenols, so
grapes need to be pressed slowly and vinifi ca-
tion is reductive; despite its polyphenol content,
Bellone wine's oxidize easily. The variety is also
blessed with high natural acidity (values of
8.5 grams per liter are not rare), which allows
the production of good sparkling wines. When
made from late-harvested grapes, the resulting
sweet wine is thick, unctuous, amazingly com-
plex, and never cloying because of its high acid-
ity; I think it's on par with the greatest sweet
Biancame
where it's found:
Marche, Emilia-Romagna.
national registry code number:
25.
color:
white.
While topics and websites, many local grow-
ers, winemakers, and even expert academicians
(Fontana 2001) report that Biancame is synony-
mous with Trebbiano Toscano, there are, to the
best of my knowledge, no recently reported SSR
microsatellite studies, or even accurate ampelo-
graphic verifi cations, confi rming this. A care-
ful review of all the most important literature of
the last decade detailing parentage studies and
identities of grape varieties reveals that the
question of a possible Biancame/Trebbiano
Toscano identity remains unanswered. Fur-
