Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
and Rubicone. The wine is always very full-
bodied, strong, and tannic, similar to a barbera
or Aglianico but with even more gravitas and
weight. Uva Longanesi wines aren't for the
faint of heart, as it doesn't have a wealth of
fresh fruity aromas but rather plenty of evolved,
almost tertiary aromas such as tobacco, under-
brush, and tar. The wine needs plenty of time
in the cellar, as the hard tannins soften very
slowly. Most producers have told me that only
after seven years of bottle age do the tannins
tend to become more civilized, and even air-
drying the grapes doesn't help soften the tactile
sensation of a burson much. The tannins risk
being green even in the warmest, downright
hot years (and the fact that some people blend
cabernet sauvignon with burson makes no
sense to me whatsoever). The wine does exude
very intense black cherry and plum aromas and
fl avors. For these reasons, the burson associa-
tion differentiates between a burson etichetta
nera (black label), made at least partly from late-
harvested grapes (at least 50 percent of the
grapes have to be air-dried or late harvested,
and the wine has to spend a minimum of eigh-
teen months in barrel), and the etichetta blu
(blue label), which is a fresher, readier to drink
style of burson, in which a minimum of 40 per-
cent of the grapes undergo carbonic macera-
tion, much as in the style of Beaujolais Nou-
veau. The intent to tame burson's naturally
overly-tannic tendency is all too obvious.
bunch, which makes this cultivar practically
immune to botrytis and ideal for air-drying
(Uva Rara literally translates to “rare grape,”
meaning rare grapes on the bunch). Uva Rara
is characterized by bunches of various sizes
even on the same grapevine, though they are
usually medium-large and pyramidal or coni-
cal. A vigorous variety, it is resistant to perono-
spora and less to oidium, but is unfortunately
very subject to millerandage, apparently more so
in the Oltrepò Pavese area than in the Novara-
Vercelli area (Dalmasso, Cacciatore, and Corte
1962). It ripens very late in the season (a
November harvest used to be common in less
climate change-challenged times); in fact,
locals had a habit of eating Uva Rara grapes for
Christmas. Its suitability for air-drying is his-
torically why people in Italy would hang the
grapes in well-ventilated areas of the house or
the stable and then would eat them all winter
long, when other fruits were hard to come by.
Nowadays, this characteristic is advantageous
for making sweet wines. Very interestingly,
Christoph Künzli of the high-quality Le Piane
estate in Boca, who is not a fan of Uva Rara,
says its big round berries make it look like a
table grape, which really ought to be its destina-
tion, as far as he's concerned.
Uva Rara's presence has been documented
in Piedmont and Lombardy since at least the
ninth century, but unfortunately even impor-
tant, knowledgeable ampelographers of the
past, such as Di Rovasenda (1877) and Molon
(1906), confused Croatina, Bonarda, and Uva
Rara, describing one as the other.
wines to try: Daniele Longanesi***, Celti
Centurioni**, Tenuta Uccellina**, Francesco
Tonini**, Massimo Randi**, and Spinetta**.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Uva Rara is very abundant in Lombardy, espe-
cially in the Oltrepò Pavese area in the province
of Pavia (where they even use it to make rosato
and novello wine, the latter Italy's version of
nouveau wines). It is also especially found in
northeastern Piedmont and in smaller amounts
in the Astigiano and Alessandrino areas.
Therefore, the wines usually are from either the
Oltrepò Pavese or Piedmont's Colline Novaresi.
In the Oltrepò Pavese, the three highest-quality
Uva Rara
where it's found: Piedmont, Lombardy. na -
tional registry code number: 248. color:
red.
In the never-ending fun provided by Italy's
native grapes , Uva Rara is also erroneously
called Bonarda Novarese and Croatina, distinct
varieties. The name Uva Rara derives from the
variety's extremely sparse or loosely packed
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