Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
ripeness unattained elsewhere, thanks to the
microclimate created by the interaction of
water, sunlight, and soil.
In Lombardy, the DOC Garda includes a
monovarietal Marzemino wine, while other
DOCs (Botticcino, Cellatica, Riviera del Garda
Bresciano) include the grape in blends. The
Emilia-Romagna DOC Colli di Scandiano e
Canossa also includes Marzemino in its blend.
According to Filippo Scienza of the excellent
Vallarom estate, Marzemino is a very reduc-
tive variety, so it's important to expose it to
oxygen during the winemaking process, with
frequent rack and returns in order to avoid the
development of off odors. A good wine will
recall sour red berries, violets, and delicate
fresh herbs, with high acids, a midweight
body, and a wild, herbal quality, fi nishing with
a characteristic slightly bitter touch. Some pro-
ducers have taken to air-drying in order to
obtain a softer wine with sweeter aromas and
fl avors.
Mayolet faces trouble while the two noble inter-
nationals do not.
Mayolet's name may stem either from
may-
ola,
meaning “young vine,” or from the Mayolet
family surname, still common in much of Valle
d'Aosta. The earliest mention of Mayolet is in
the
Cahiers de la cave
of the Passerin d'Entrèves
in 1787 and probably not, as reported elsewhere,
the 1822 presumed reference by Arguettaz, the
curate of Valpelline. The Passerin wrote of the
1783-87 vintages, the latter an apparently very
good year for Mayolet, as this was the one he
deemed suitable “to age.” Not surprisingly, the
best and most accurate historical description of
Mayolet is Gatta's in 1838, which said the vari-
ety was especially abundant in vineyards of
Aymavilles, Sarre, and especially Saint-Pierre.
Bich (1896) also wrote that Mayolet was one of
the region's oldest known cultivars. It consti-
tuted at the time an important part of the high-
quality Torrette wine, made locally from par-
tially dehydrated grapes. Berget (1904) wrote
that there were more than 100 hectares planted
to Mayolet between Charvensod and Saint-
Pierre, a remarkable amount given that today
there are only 480 hectares devoted to grape-
vines in the whole of the Valle d'Aosta. Recent
DNA analysis has shown Mayolet to be, along
with Petit Rouge, one of the parents of Rouge
du Pays or Rouge du Valais, considered a Swiss
native grape. Mayolet also shares a parent-prog-
eny relationship with Prié and Vuillermin, as
determined by Vouillamoz, Maigre, and
Meredith (2003).
Unfortunately Mayolet quickly fell out of
favor with growers after an initial moment of
excitement. Eleonora Charrère of the prestig-
ious Les Cretes estate muses, “It's a grape that
produces a remarkably refi ned, lovely wine, but
in the vineyard it's a nightmare; the bunch is
too compact, making it a botrytis smorgasbord,
and the skin's very thin.” Michel Vallée, the
extraordinarily talented force behind the I
Feudo di San Maurizio estate, adds, “Just imag-
ine that people who had planted Mayolet only
six or so years ago are already ripping it out in
order to replant other local, easier to work with
wines to try:
Riccardo Battistotti***, Conti
Bossi Fredrigotti***, Bruno Grigoletti***,
Eugenio Rosi*** (Poiema, made from lightly
air-dried grapes, is excellent, if in a slightly
atypical style), De Tarczal**, Enrico Spa-
gnolli**, Longariva**, Vallarom**, Vallis
Agri** (Vigna Fornas), Vilàr**, Letrari*, Can-
tina d'Isera*, Cantina di Nomi*, Gaierhof*,
Lavis and Val di Cembra*, and Armando
Simoncelli* (a very good expression from basal-
tic-tufa soils).
Mayolet
where it's found:
Valle d'Aosta.
national
registry code number:
306.
color:
red.
I love the Valle d'Aosta, and I love Mayolet,
truly a great native grape variety. By that I mean
it delivers everything you'd expect from a native
cultivar: unique and pretty aromas and fl avors
that better-known varieties such as Syrah or
Merlot do not (though they have other virtues),
as well as countless headaches in the vineyard
and the cellar, which of course explains why
