Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
A reliable, large producer, Cordenossa was
always held in high esteem by locals who dis-
tinguished between two biotypes: Cordenossa
Grande, the more common and more highly
regarded of the two, and Cordenossa Piccolo,
with smaller berries and a more compact
bunch. I wonder about this evaluation, as back
in the nineteenth century a compact bunch and
small berries meant problems with botrytis
and less juice, two factors that would have held
little appeal for quantity-minded growers. The
Cordenossa present in today's vineyards has a
very large, pentagonal leaf with essentially no
indentations, so that it appears to have no lobes.
The grape bunch is medium-sized and conical,
with one to two wings; the small, round berries
are characterized by thin but resistant dark-
blue skins. It ripens very late in the season: the
grapes are usually picked in October.
Cordenossa is only grown in Friuli Venezia
Giulia and even there only in sporadic vineyard
plots of the Pordenone province; it is most typi-
cally found in the Spilimbergo hills around San
Vito al Tagliamento, San Giorgio della Rin-
chivelda, and Pinzano al Tagliamento
.
plicated and easygoing: local authorities hope it
might become a symbol of the town and its
local wine production. Emilio Bulfon makes a
tremendously enjoyable, light-bodied monova-
rietal Cordenossa wine. It's the only monovari-
etal cordenossa I know of, and very good, in the
typical soft and fruity Bulfon style, with strong
aromas and fl avors of black currant and violet,
and less tannic vehemence than I might have
expected given what I know about the variety.
Biochemical exams performed on microvinifi -
cations of Cordenossa I have tasted show the
wine to have a good concentration of both nor-
isoprenoids and benzenoids, explaining its per-
fumed aromas.
wines to try:
Bulfon**.
Cornalin
where it's found:
Valle d'Aosta.
national
registry code number:
304.
color:
red.
While visiting the Anselmet estate in Valle
d'Aosta in 2001 or 2002 (memory fails me), I
was told I was one of the fi rst nonlocal wine
writers to taste the fi rst commercial release of
the estate's Cornalin wine—the variety had
never been available as a monovarietal bottling
until then. This means that Cornalin has only
been available as wine for twelve years or so.
That I was the fi rst or one of the fi rst didn't
matter much to me, but getting to taste the
wine did: I had driven nine hours from Rome
just for that opportunity! What made Ansel-
met's bottling really special was that it appar-
ently was the fi rst-ever bottling of a rare Corna-
lin biotype called Broblanc, which I had
previously only read about.
Cornalin is believed by some to take its
name from
corniola,
or carnelian, the semipre-
cious mountain gemstone, while others think it
stems from the town of Colignola, one of the
epicenters of initial Cornalin cultivation.
Another possibility is that the name derives
from the cornelian cherry tree, which is
renowned for its extremely hard wood. How-
ever, confusion regarding the origin of its name
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Recently, the Regional Institute for the Devel-
opment of Agriculture in Friuli Venezia Giulia,
in collaboration with the town of San Giorgio
della Rinchivelda and the Tondat estate, re-cre-
ated vin di uchi, a historic blend of three varie-
ties (Palomba or Piedirosso, Refosco Gentile,
and Cordenossa) that were commonly grown in
the fl atland vineyards near San Giorgio della
Rinchivelda. The wine was an assembly of vari-
eties, with the very rare Refosco Gentile, of
which few vines remain, comprising roughly
50 percent of the blend and providing aromas
and spices, the Palomba drinkability, and the
Cordenossa tannins. In fact Cordenossa micro-
vinifi cations reveal medium-dark hue (the vari-
ety has good concentrations of acylated, or sta-
ble, anthocyanins), aromas of red berries and
fresh herbs, and strong tannic structure,
heightened by high total acidity (with especially
high levels of tartaric acid). The wine is uncom-
