Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Corvina), Amarone della Valpolicella (up to 80
percent Corvina), and Bardolino Superiore (up
to 80 percent Corvina). In order to taste a pure
Corvina wine, look for IGT wines such as Rosso
Veronese. What should never be forgotten is
that, paradoxically enough, the wine made
from Corvina is never ultra-dark. This is a situ-
ation analogous to that of Pinot Nero, Sangio-
vese, or Nebbiolo: though the grape's name
may imply a dark hue, the wine is rarely deeper
than bright red. Wine writers tasting a suppos-
edly 100 percent corvina need to keep this in
mind. True, over the last decade, much as with
Sangiovese and similarly light-colored wines,
efforts have been directed to obtaining new
clones that guarantee deeper hues; in this
respect, the ISV 48 clone is increasingly being
planted, but not all producers are convinced it
has any worthwhile qualities beyond its deep
hue. Also important is that Corvina wines are
blessed with very fi ne tannins, but not a huge
abundance of them, so while monovarietal cor-
vinas can be lightly tannic, they cannot, and
should not, remind you of a Sagrantino or a
similarly tannic behemoth.
A good corvina will remind you of violet,
blackberry, and red cherry, with a delicately
aromatic touch of herbs. Some producers like
to age corvina at least partly in cherrywood bar-
rels, as this heightens their sweet red-cherry
note, adding an almost resiny quality that may
however prove too sweet for some palates. Gio-
vanna Tantini tells me that “since with Corvina
there aren't many tannins to worry about and
the anthocyanin content is low, longer macera-
tions (in excess of ten days) and higher fermen-
tation temperatures (26-30°C) are fi ne, to help
extract as much color as possible. Bitterness
from excessive tannin extraction isn't really a
concern.” The most famous Corvina wine of all
is Allegrini's La Poja, now a Rosso Veronese
IGT wine that has the distinction of being
the fi rst monovarietal corvina to gain media
attention and critical acclaim, winning
numerous awards over the years. An impres-
sive wine, I fi nd it a little too dark and tannic
for my taste.
Successful Corvina wines are being made in
Argentina and Australia. I know of no monova-
rietal corvina examples from the latter country,
but Freeman Vineyards in New South Wales
blends it with Rondinella to make an Amarone-
styled wine (the grapes are harvested up to
three months later than their other grapes and
are air-dried for roughly ten days). In Argen-
tina, Masi has planted it at their Masi Tupun-
gato estate, where it gives highly perfumed
wines benefi ting greatly from day-night tem-
perature differences that heighten the aromat-
ics. Masi even blends Corvina with Malbec to
make two wines called Corbec and Passo Doble.
Raffaele Boscaini of Masi jokes that pretty soon
his Argentinean corvina will start challenging
the one from Veneto for “best in show.”
wines to try:
Giovanna Tantini*** (Rosso
Veronese Greta, my favorite corvina, a wine
that is respectful of what the variety can give),
Luigi Brunelli** (Corte Cariano), Allegrini*
(Rosso Veronese La Poja), Davide Sterza*, and
Le Vigne di San Pietro* (CordeRosa, dedicated
by the owner to his wife, Rosa).
Corvinone
where it's found:
Veneto, Lombardy.
nation-
al registry code number:
328.
color:
red.
Its name seems to say it all: Corvinone is
“big Corvina.” But even though Corvinone's
clusters are twice the size of Corvina's, it isn't
always easy to tell the two apart. Also called
Cruinon and Corvinon, this variety has always
been surrounded by confusion: for centuries, it
was simply considered a larger-than-usual Cor-
vina, and there is a paucity of historical refer-
ences to it. The association with Corvina is an
easy enough mistake to make because there is
a large-berried biotype of Corvina, Corvina
Grossa, that looks almost exactly like Corvi-
none. For this reason, it's hard to be sure about
prior opinions about this variety: Acerbi (1825)
and Bertani (1886) were both enthusiastic (Ber-
tani especially liked Corvinone's ability to per-
form well both in hillside and fl atland vine-
