Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Falsini believes it's not resistant at all to any of
the major common grapevine diseases. The
berries are very sweet when ripe but don't drop
their acidity, making Nocera ideal for warmer
climates.
Nocera was once much more common, and
easily found in northeastern Sicily at least until
the 1960s (Pastena 1973). Nowadays, cultiva-
tion is mostly limited to the countryside around
Messina, at the northeastern tip of Sicily, espe-
cially between Furnari and Castanea. It is also
grown sporadically in Calabria (in every prov-
ince except for Cosenza).
ing the variety and I am trying to convince both
her and her winemaker Emiliano Falsini to
take the plunge.
wines to try:
Mimmo Paone** (one of the
best monovarietal examples; deep ruby,
expresses lovely aromas of fresh herbs, ripe red
cherries, and tar, full-bodied and thick-textured
on the long smooth fi nish; the estate also
makes a very good, if lighter-styled, Malvasia
delle Lipari), Tenuta Gatti**, Cambria** (Mas-
tronicola, just as good as the Mimmo Paone),
and Vasari* (good, if simple; made from
organic grapes). Enza La Fauci might consider
making a monovarietal Nocera wine sometime
in the future.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Nocera is another local variety that has largely
disappeared. In fact, it is not even listed among
Sicily's thirty most-planted vines. I fi nd this sad
because Nocera seems perfectly capable of giv-
ing full-bodied, rich, satisfying wines blessed
with acidity and ageworthiness, given the
appropriate cellars. If you consider that there
are almost fi ve thousand hectares of
Merlot
in
Sicily (the tenth most-planted variety on the
island), a variety that due to the region's hot
microclimate really should not be planted there
at all, you realize the silliness of not having
more of an indigenous variety like Nocera, a
quality if little-known wine grape.
The good news is that some producers are
taking notice: for example, the Cambria winery
believes in Nocera as few others do, though
even Alessio Planeta told me he thinks more
could be done with Nocera, if only more was
known about it. He even foresees making a
monovarietal wine one day.
You are most likely to taste Nocera in Sicil-
ian DOC wines such as Faro or Mamertino and
Calabria's Sant'Anna Isola di Capo Rizzuto
(blends of small amounts of Nocera with the
two
Nerello
grapes) and IGT wines such as
Avola, Costa Viola, Locride, Palizzi, Pellaro,
and Valle Belice. Monovarietal Nocera wines
are hard to fi nd. The Cambria estate is think-
ing of making a sweet wine with Nocera, but
it's planned as a Nero d'Avola-Nocera blend.
Enza La Fauci of the eponymous estate is study-
Nosiola
where it's found:
Trentino, Lombardy, Vene-
to.
national registry code number:
173.
color:
white.
Nosiola is a versatile grape variety that, like
few others, can successfully deliver pleasant
dry white wine of crisp, concentrated lemony
zip, and when late harvested or air-dried,
makes one of the world's greatest sweet wines.
For most experts, this variety's name derives
from
nocciola
(hazelnut), given both the color
of the grapes and their stalks when fully ripe,
and the aromas of hazelnut exuded by the
wine. Others believe the name comes from
the local dialect word
ociolet,
but this is less
likely; still others point to origins in the Celtic
prefi x
nos,
a diminutive of
nostrales,
meaning
“local.”
For the longest time Nosiola was considered
to be identical to Durella (hence it was also
called Durel), which Di Rovasenda (1877) long
ago showed to be completely different; other
synonyms were Gropel Bianc and Noselara.
Many authors, including Babo and Mach (1923),
mention a Nosiola Spinarola (or Spargelen, in
German) characterized by a very loosely packed
bunch and few berries, ideal for
vino santo
production. Unfortunately, modern clones have
gone in the direction of tightly packed bunches,
