Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
fertilize and fall off, thereby reducing yields.
However, Bianco d'Alessano is not particularly
demanding and is fairly hardy. In fact, it is
likely that besides the oceans of wine it gener-
ates, Bianco d'Alessano owes its popularity to
its ability to withstand very hot, arid conditions,
which are always more than likely in Puglia.
This is precisely why it is a grape variety that is
being looked at with increasing interest in
warm-weather wine producing areas, such as
in parts of California and Australia.
In Italy, Bianco d'Alessano has always been
linked to Puglia, and grows mainly in the prov-
inces of Brindisi, Bari, and Taranto. Otherwise,
it grows around the Valle d'Itria towns of Cis-
ternino, Locorotondo, Martina Franca, and Ceg-
lie Messapica and in the high, barren, wind-
swept plains of the Murgia on the border
between Puglia and Basilicata. The long-recog-
nized
grand cru
area is the Gallinajo subzone of
Locorotondo, a pretty town close to Bari. Bianco
d'Alessano also grows in Calabria, where it has
been cultivated for centuries, but under different
names: Iuvarello, Vuiune, Iuvino, and Buino.
Still, this is a variety that is falling out of favor.
Unless new producers can show others how to
make wine (monovarietal, let us hope) that will
be both critically acclaimed and fi nancially
rewarding, the future looks dim for this variety,
at least in Italy. However, it is also true that there
has been no better time in the last fi fty years of
Italy's wine history for a forgotten or poorly
regarded variety to break through. The longest
yard is just ahead for Bianco d'Alessano.
Minutolo, as well as a monovarietal Bianco
d'Alessano. A pure Bianco d'Alessano wine is
delicately herbal, with nuances of green apple,
bitter orange, and white fl owers. Carparelli's is
by far the best example made in Italy, but in my
view, tasting his three monovarietal wines side
by side proves that Bianco d'Alessano wine is
inferior to the other two, lacking their complex-
ity and depth. Still, Bianco d'Alessano is not the
loser many people thought it was, and it would
be nice to see what might happen with further
reduction of yields.
In California, Sonoma's Viansa Winery
made a 2007 and 2008 Bianco d'Alessano
called Anatra, but I haven't seen this wine in a
long time. In Australia, the Salena Estate (Ink
Series Bianco d'Alessano) has won critical
acclaim, prizes, and consumer devotion with its
now monovarietal Bianco d'Alessano wines.
Perhaps the warmer inland areas of Australia
(such as the Riverlands region, where Salena
Estate is located) may be a new, ideal home for
it, seeing as its fortunes in Italy are somewhat
on the decline. Winemaker Melanie Kargas
fi nds that her wine exudes “apple, pear, and
loquat aromas and fl avors, hints of citrus and
underlying minerality.”
wines to try:
I Pastini / Livio Carparelli***
(Cupa, f loral, herbal, apricot- and lychee-
marked, is the benchmark by which all others
are measured) and Apollonio** (Elfo Bianco
d'Alessano, also 100 percent monovarietal).
The Locorotondo Social Cooperative** (Locoro-
tondo Vigneti in Gallinajo) does not yet make
make a monovarietal Bianco d'Alessano wine,
but rather fresh and light Locorotondo wines
with an agreeable crisp lemony zing and admix-
ture of Verdeca, as is traditional in the area.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
The most important wines are the DOC Locoro-
tondo (in which Bianco d'Alessano is blended
with Verdeca) though it's part of the more rare
DOC wines Gravina, Ostuni, and Lizzano, as
well as IGT wines Daunia, Murgia, Salento, and
Valle d'Itria. Livio Carparelli, the longtime
director of the Locorotondo Social Cooperative
and also the winemaker at the Torrevento
estate, knows this area of Puglia and its varie-
ties intimately. His eponymous estate produces
wines made from 100 percent Verdeca and
Biancolella
where it's found:
Campania.
national reg-
istry code number:
29.
color:
white.
Also known as Jancolella, Janculilla, and simi-
lar, very rarely used names, Biancolella has
long been associated with the island of Ischia:
