Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
specifi c, almost unique aromatic character,” he
told me, “but it's not very productive at all, and
that's why it was abandoned. To make matters
worse, the berry is very small and it has three
pips (I fi nd most cultivars have two), further
reducing the juice in the berries. It also does
best at higher altitudes, above four hundred
meters above sea level, and this was another
drawback limiting its appeal.”
of this wine are midweight and easygoing. The
best tintilias I've had are marked by very ripe
red-fruit aromas and fl avors, with hints of fl int
and tar that are very enjoyable. I am not yet con-
vinced the variety will be able to give wines of
mind-bending complexity, but wonderful to
drink wines that are above average in depth and
texture, yes.
wines to try:
Cantine Cipressi**, Cianfa-
gna**, Angelo D'Uva*, and Cantina Salvatore*.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Molise or bust, you might say. The latest data
(2010) shows there are only sixty hectares
planted to Tintilia (though that number is cer-
tain to rise in the next decade), all of which are
in Molise. Long used as a blending grape, it is
now possible to taste pure Tintilia in wines of
the DOC Molise Tintilia (created only in 1998).
Tintilia is actually a pretty good wine. Saturated
red and pleasantly spicy and fl oral on the nose,
it's full-bodied, with fl avors of ripe red fruit,
leather, and tobacco and a pleasant saline bent,
with very good acidity and noble tannins.
Tintilia is still little known, and so describ-
ing what a well-made monovarietal ought to be
about is diffi cult. In fact, when I tasted wines
with world-famous winemaker Attilio Pagli,
who, to his credit, has devoted himself to mak-
ing authentic wines from native grapes (his
greatest, though not his only, success is with
Ciliegiolo), I mentioned that I didn't know
much about Tintilia and what it's supposed to
taste like. He laughed and told me fl at out:
“Ian, nobody knows anything about Tintilia
and what it's supposed to taste like. We're all
just learning.”
The few wines I have had thus far, from pro-
ducers I trust not to throw in a dollop or two of
merlot or syrah for added body or creaminess or
whatever, are all wines characterized by very
deep, almost inky hues, with fruit-forward,
creamy personalities but with a nice under-
brush and herbal element that keeps them
from being just New World chocolaty-vanilla
wannabes. Furthermore, Tintilia wines, when
well made, are all characterized by sound levels
of acidity, so that the less concentrated versions
Tintore di Tramonti
where it's found:
Campania.
national reg-
istry code number:
444.
color:
red.
Tintore
and
Tram onti,
two words that tell you
all you need to know. Tintore di Tramonti is yet
another
teinturier
grape, varieties so called
because their juice is very intensely colored. As
a result, throughout history, the
teinturiers
were
always used to boost the anemic hues of wines
made with other varieties. The French
teintu-
rier
means “to tinge,” or “color”; the Italian
tinto
also means “tinged” or “colored,” and a
tintore
is he who colors. (As an aside, the famous Vene-
tian painter Tintoretto received that nickname
because his father was a dyer: as the son of a
Mr. Tintore, he was dubbed Tintoretto, or little
Tintore.) There are many such color-endowed
teinturier
varieties in Italy (some are actually
American hybrid grapes), and almost all are
recognizable because of a colored pulp: a rarity,
since almost all grapes used to make fi ne wine
have colorless juice (as an example, wines made
with Merlot or Syrah are red only because the
grape juice was allowed to sit in contact with
the grape skins for a certain number of hours;
generalizing somewhat, the longer that skin
contact, the darker the red wine).
Tintore di Tramonti is genetically linked to
other minor Campanian varieties: Livella
Ischia, Mangiaguerra (but not the Magliocco
Dolce of Calabria, also at times called Mangia-
guerra locally), and a Tintiglia variety different
from the much better-known Tintilia of Molise.
