Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
compact bunch, well-ventilated sites such as
the top of a hill are always best. These also
ensure plenty of sunlight, giving Pignolo a bet-
ter shot at reaching optimal ripeness.
Pignolo is very sensitive to oidium; in really
old vineyards, the vines were apparently
ungrafted, a rarity because the variety is very
sensitive to phylloxera. Pignolo is unrelated to
any of the other main
pigna
-named varieties in
Italy, such as Pignoletto or Pignola Nera.
wines. Even worse, having tasted numerous
Pignolo wines and many with almost a decade
of bottle age, I have yet to fi nd one that has
developed the nuances of truly noble grape vari-
eties, which makes me think the variety may be
limited in what it can really express. Big and
brawny always, maybe even with an increased
degree of gentleness: but truly noble? I wonder.
Undoubtedly, time will tell and plays in Pigno-
lo's favor.
wines to try:
Dorigo***, Valentino Butussi**,
Paolino Comelli**, Petrucco**, Torre Rosazza**,
Le Vigne di Zamò**, Moschioni** (grapes are
gently air-dried on the vine), Castello di But-
trio**, and Ermacora**. The last three are much
softer than others, with less obvious tannins, a
neat trick given Pignolo's intrinsic characteris-
tics. Alessandra Felluga of Castello di Buttrio
told me it's her particular
terroir,
and Dario
Ermacora maintains he does not blend any soft-
ening agents in such as Merlot. Good for them,
as the wines are excellent and give Pignolo lov-
ers hope that the wines will soon reach the con-
siderable potential the variety seems blessed
with.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Pignolo is grown in many parts of Friuli Ven-
ezia Giulia but is most abundant around the
towns of Albana, Premariacco, Prepotto, and
Rosazzo in the Colli Orientali del Friuli (COF),
and these DOC wines are labeled COF Pignolo.
According to Silvano Zamò, Pignolo is
tough to work with in the cellar: its extreme
wealth of polyphenols causes high osmotic
pressure in the must, which makes life diffi cult
for yeasts. Therefore, stuck fermentations are
always a possibility with Pignolo. The other
huge diffi culty is Pignolo's brute tannic power.
Though the wines can express delicious black-
berry and blueberry aromas and fl avors, com-
plicated by herbal nuances and a juicy mineral
tang, these characteristics become apparent
only after six to eight years from the vintage.
This is because Pignolo is one of Friuli Venezia
Giulia's (and all of Italy's, for that matter) most
tannic varieties, and as it has only recently been
rediscovered, the best way to manage those tan-
nins is still a matter of conjecture. Producers
and winemakers have tried everything from
late harvesting the grapes to air-drying them
on mats, shortening
cuvaisons,
and decreasing
fermentation temperatures. Consequently,
today's Pignolo wines exhibit considerable sty-
listic differences, but all young wines share
almost brutal mouth-coating tannins. Think
Sagrantino, or a Barolo on steroids. While big,
tannic wines are certainly impressive, produc-
ers are still learning to tame this tannic bounty,
and I'm not sure I've tasted enough Pignolo
wines that have achieved a degree of refi ne-
ment similar to Italy's and the world's greatest
Pinella
where it's found:
Veneto.
national regis-
try code number:
192.
color:
white.
Pinella is a very old variety, well known
along the Adriatic coast in the thirteenth cen-
tury, mentioned in the statutes of the city of
Vicenza in 1264. It was once also common in
Friuli Venezia Giulia, described in 1324, but
today it is found mainly in Veneto. Many of
today's producers choose to call the variety
Pinello instead of Pinella. The bunch is
medium-small, shaped like a truncated cone,
and extremely compact: in fact, the round ber-
ries are often deformed by being so tightly
squeezed together. There is one clone available,
Fedit 7 C.S.G., developed in 1970. Like many
other grapes with similarly compact and small
bunches, its name derives from
pigna
or
pugno,
meaning “pine cone” or “fi st.” An abundant
