Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sweet wines from tasting cloying. Of course, in
the hands of less-than-talented producers or
those who let yields creep too high, these wines
can make for some rather tough going, with
tear-inducing acidity. One problem is that
the wines have a tendency to oxidize easily,
quickly turning an unpleasant orange color,
and so utmost care is needed to avoid unneces-
sary oxygen contact during the winemaking
process.
located between Monte Baldo and the Lessinia,
along the river Adige. At the end of the 1800s,
there were over thirteen thousand hectoliters
produced annually in Trentino, mainly around
the towns of Ala and Avio. It is also commonly
found in the countryside around Verona. Some
vines also grow in Emilia-Romagna: a token
appearance there is only fair, I guess, since that
region is the recognized home of
Lambrusco
s
and lambrusco. In the 1950s, Enantio and
Casetta, another local variety, together
accounted for more than 60 percent of the
grape varieties planted along the Adige valley,
stretching from Avio in Trentino to Rivoli in
Veneto.
But the decline that confronted many other
native varieties also affected Enantio. It was not
until Luigi Spagnolli of the Vilar estate took
matters in his own hands that the fate of Enan-
tio began to improve. With a group of winemak-
ing friends, Spagnolli created the I Dolomitici
association, comprising eleven small wineries
among the very best of the region: Castel
Noarna, Cesconi, Elisabetta Dalzocchio, Elisa-
betta Foradori, Eugenio Rosi, Maso Furli, Gino
Pedrotti, Francesco Poli, Giuseppe Fanti, and
Vilar. I Dolomitici recently saved a small vine-
yard of centenary Enantio vines by renting it
from the new owners, who intended to rip out
the old vines and plant other varieties in their
place. Saving this vineyard is especially note-
worthy, not just because of the age of its vines,
but also because the vines are still ungrafted;
the high sand content of the vineyard's soil
(near the shores of the Adige River at Avio)
never allowed the phylloxera louse to set up
shop. The association has begun bottling a
wine made from these old vines, naming it
after the old owner's nickname, Ciso. To its
credit, the association is also sponsoring a
study aimed at saving the intravarietal variabil-
ity typical of Enantio.
As its original name, Lambrusco a Foglia
Frastagliata, implies, this variety is easily recog-
nized by the heavy indentations of its leaves
(
frastagliato
means jagged). The fi rst to clearly
differentiate Enantio from other
Lambrusco
wines to try:
Fongaro*** (Etichetta Viola and
Etichetta Nera Riserva; this estate has been
growing Durella since its founding in 1975, so
it is blessed with old vines), Marcato*** (Eti-
chetta Gialla and A. R. Brut), and Corte
Moschina*. For
passito,
try Casa Cecchin** (Il
Montebello, excellent).
Enantio
where it's found:
Trentino, Veneto.
national
registry code number:
114 (listed as Lam-
brusco a Foglia Frastagliata).
color:
red.
In Trentino and Veneto, Enantio is still most
often called Lambrusco a Foglia Frastagliata,
while Sbeccàa, Zicolada, and Nostram de Avi
are less commonly used synonyms
.
Though I
am told that Enantio has recently become the
offi cial name for this variety (hence this is the
name I use in this topic), in the most recent
update of the National Registry (March 23,
2012), it is still listed as Lambrusco a Foglia
Frastagliata, so the change is slow in coming.
The fact is that, though most producers want
the variety called Enantio to help differentiate it
from the many
Lambrusco
s from which it is
genetically distinct, the name (fi rst suggested
by Mario Fregoni, professor of viticulture at the
Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Pia-
cenza, who chose it in reference to a variety
named by Pliny the Elder) really hasn't caught
on and many just view it as a marketing
gimmick.
Enantio has been grown for centuries in the
countryside of the low Vallagarina in Trentino,
specifi cally in the Terra dei Forti, an area
