Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
medium term, but are not as ageworthy as San-
giovese wines. I fi nd monovarietal wines recall
red currant, dried plums, and cinnamon, with
nuances of tobacco, and are blessed with strong
but smooth tannins and overall high acidities;
like Sangiovese, they have dark ruby-red hues
tinged with garnet, though they are deeper in
color than those made with Sangiovese alone.
producer on the island of Ischia and the one
who currently knows the most about the culti-
vars that hug Ischia's mountain slopes.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Forastera is grown almost exclusively on the
island of Ischia, though there are some vines
located on the island of Procida, and on the
Penisola Sorrentina and the Campi Flegrei on
mainland Campania. The best wine is DOC
Ischia Forastera, though DOC Ischia Bianco
wines, in which Forastera is part of a blend, are
excellent too. A good forastera is herbal (wild
fennel, oregano, mint) and saline, with hints of
ripe Golden Delicious apple and dried apricot.
It has a richer mouthfeel than Biancolella
wines, which are always brighter and fresher.
wines to try:
Mocine*** (s'Indora), Man-
nucci Droandi**, Guido Galassi** (wines vini-
fi ed in open-topped wooden fermentation tanks
before aging for ten months in oak casks of
various sizes and ages, rolled continuously to
keep the lees moving). Other estates that have
considerable plantings of Foglia Tonda are Don-
atella Cinelli Colombini, but the wine produced
(the very good Cenerentola) is a blend (65 per-
cent Sangiovese and 35 percent Foglia Tonda).
wines to try:
D'Ambra*** (Euposia), Antonio
Mazzella**, Cenatiempo**, Pietratorcia**.
Forastera
where it's found:
Campania.
national reg-
istry code number:
83.
color:
white.
The name tells the story:
forastera
(or
fores-
tiera,
in Italian) means foreigner and this grape
variety, one of the two really important white
grapes of the island of Ischia (the other is Bian-
colella), was a late arrival to the island. Accord-
ing to d'Ambra (1962), Forastera arrived on
Ischian shores only in the mid-1800s, though
the island has a millenary tradition of fi ne
winemaking dating back to ancient Roman
times. Though D'Ascia doesn't mention its
presence in his detailed 1867 treatise on the
history of the island, Froio mentions it a few
years later, in 1878. Very curiously, and proba-
bly erroneously, Di Rovasenda in 1877 consid-
ered this cultivar to be abundant in the prov-
ince of Bergamo in northern Lombardy, which
seems highly unlikely to me. For reasons that
escape me (and everyone else I have asked), on
the island of Procida it is called Uva dell'Isola.
It's characterized by only modest sugar accu-
mulation and total acidity levels, even when
grown in highly different
terroirs,
according to
Andrea D'Ambra, certainly the most important
Forgiarin
where it's found:
FVG.
national registry
code number:
321.
color:
red.
Forgiarin's name derives from the town of
Forgaria (Forjarie), where this cultivar origi-
nates. Not much is known of its history. At the
Regional Grape Exhibition organized in 1863 by
the Udine chapter of the Associazione Agraria
Friulana (Friuli Agricultural Association), the
San Daniele hills were indicated as the typical
production area for Forgiarin. Pirona (1871)
w rote t hat in time t he production area ex panded
to Spilimbergo and Maniago.
Also called Forzarin or Forgiarina, Forgia-
rin is not to be confused with other similarly
named varieties such as Uva Fogarina. Forgia-
rin's extreme oidium sensitivity led farmers to
turn their backs on it, and it was only rediscov-
ered roughly twenty years ago and brought back
to life as a monovarietal wine by Emilio Bulfon
from Pinzano al Tagliamento in Friuli Venezia
Giulia. So though it is not a totally “new” vari-
ety and wine, Forgiarin is so limited in its avail-
ability today that it is about as obscure a grape
and wine as there are in Italy today.
