Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
packed, Oseleta rarely has problems with botry-
tis. The best sites for Oseleta are characterized
by good drainage, but at least some capacity for
water retention, and plenty of gravel and sand.
Due to Oseleta's morphologic appearance and
rustic behavior, experts have postulated that it
is a descendant of wild grapevines that were
domesticated over time, but there is no defi ni-
tive evidence of this.
Currently, Oseleta grows only in Valpolicella
to the north and northeast of Verona, where
there are an estimated twenty-fi ve hectares
planted to it (based on 2010 data).
With a little patience and dedication, it is easy
to detect whether a
Cabernet
variety or Oseleta
has been added to Amarone. Furthermore, you
can guess fairly accurately, given Oseleta's pow-
erful signature, if 5, 10, or 20 percent has been
added. According to Raffaele Boscaini, “adding
as little as 5 percent of Oseleta will change a
wine completely, while it takes at least a 15 per-
cent addition of Rondinella to do the same.
Curiously, it's a particularly horrible grape to
eat: in the vineyards you just want to spit it out,
for it's so tannic.” Boscaini loves to add a little
of this variety in air-dried form to his wines:
“Unlike the
Cabernet
s, which tend to produce a
large number of bitter substances when air-
dried, Oseleta does not, and it really adds a dif-
ferent, better texture to the wine.” In my experi-
ence, wines that are all or mainly Oseleta have
dark hues, exude grapey and violet aromas, and
are massively tannic but offer delicate herbal
and blackberry fl avors, complicated by nuances
of tar, leather, fresh herbs, and cinnamon.
Not all Oseleta wines I have tried over the
years in Veneto cellars have struck me as suc-
cessful: some really are too astringent and
green, and producers never release those
batches of wine as monovarietal examples, pre-
ferring to blend small percentages of their ose-
leta with their other wines to supply backbone
and acid nerve. However, Celestino Gaspari,
who makes the best Oseleta wine of all and was
one of the fi rst to believe in the variety, man-
ages to produce a version that is always marked
by very bright red and black fruit fl avors and,
though typically tannic, is never green or exces-
sively astringent. So it just goes to show that if
and when native grapes fi nd someone who
believes in them, and dedicates himself or her-
self to fi guring out what works best (given
there is very little prior experience with most of
these grapes), good things are very likely to
happen.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Pure Oseleta wines are rare because the grape
does not yield much juice, due to the extremely
small berry, thick skin, and three relatively
large pips. It is used to make IGT wines (no
DOC wines are yet possible) such as Delle Ven-
ezie, Vallagarina, and Rosso Veronese. Air-dry-
ing grapes further reduces must available from
the berries, which is another reason that large
volumes of monovarietal Oseleta wines are
unlikely. However, Oseleta had plenty to say,
with wines of uncommon power and tannic
structure. More important, it is a native alterna-
tive to using Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot as
a blending agent for Valpolicella and Amarone;
like Molinara, it matches better with Corvina
and Corvinone than the two internationals
(though because of Oseleta's limited yields, we
will likely never see Amarone made with large
percentages of the variety). Oseleta's suitability
is probably because, like other native grapes, it
has lived in a specifi c area for centuries and is
better adapted to the local habitats than recently
planted international varieties. Wines made
from local grapes invariably show aroma and
fl avor profi les unique to the production area
and more interesting than the predominant
coffee-cedar-chocolate-violet
of
many
internationals.
Specifi cally, I fi nd that Oseleta provides Val-
policella and Amarone with a different tannic
texture than Cabernet Sauvignon does, as well
as a herbaceousness that is also very different.
wines to try:
Masi*** (Osar; fi rst made with
85 percent Oseleta in 1995, wholly monovarie-
tal since 2000) and Zymé*** (Oz). La Cappuc-
cina's Carmenos is an interesting but tannic
