Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
around Verona, and Crovaja near Vicenza. It
was clear to experts already in the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries that there was
much confusion surrounding the
Corbina
grapes, a problem compounded by the fact that
everyone mixed them up with the
Corvina
grapes (remember that at that time Corvinone
was also thought to be just a biotype of Cor-
vina). It is thanks to Marzotto (1925) that the
situation was clarifi ed: he illustrated how the
Corvina
grapes were typical of the area around
Verona and Bardolino (where they are still
grown today), while the
Corbina
were more
typical of the countryside of Minerbe, Legnago,
and Treviso. The two groups of grapes are easily
differentiated because the
Corvina
grapes have
usually oval berries as opposed to the
Corbina
s'
generally round ones. Finally, Marzotto also
divided the
Corbina
group into two subgroups,
the
Corbina
s and the
Corbinone
s, the latter
characterized by larger grapes. Of course, we
might one day learn that Corbina and
Corbinone are distinct grapes, much as Cor-
vina and Corvinone are.
In any case, everyone seems to have been in
agreement that the
Corbina
s gave remarkably
dark-colored wines that were excellent: their
only drawback was that they were also
extremely tannic, and required at least three
years of aging in order to become drinkable.
Marzotto quite intelligently suggested that in
order to avoid making excessively dark, tannic
wines, it was best to remove the stalks from the
grapes and to blend in more or less small
amounts of white grape must. Wines made
with Corbina were presented at many national
fairs in the nineteenth century: Riccardo Tede-
schi of the famous Tedeschi estate in Valpoli-
cella tells me they met with critical acclaim.
Unfortunately, the strong color and tannins
typical of Corbina wines were viewed as poten-
tially unappealing to the winebuying public of
the mid-twentieth century, and so during the
post-phylloxeric period, many local experts
suggested that vineyards be replanted with
other, gentler varieties such as Merlot and even
Barbera.
However, it's hard to keep a good grape
down, and recently, Corbina has been well char-
acterized by Cancellier, Coletti, Coletti, Soligo,
and Michelet (2007). Today, many producers
are looking to Corbina with renewed interest,
thanks mainly to work done by Emanuele Tosi
of the Centro per la Sperimentazione, Servizio
Agricoltura, of the province of Verona. For
example, Tedeschi, in collaboration with Tosi,
has reserved part of a vineyard for experimental
plantings of Corbina and other local rare natives.
The grape bunch is medium-sized, pyramidal,
and winged and runs the gamut from sparse to
compact; berries are medium-sized, round, very
thick skinned, and blue-black. Corbina is resis-
tant to common pests; budbreak is late and har-
vest occurs in late September or early October.
The wine (from microvinifi cations) is deeply
hued, the nose balsamic and fruity (blackberry,
black cherry), with strong tannins and good
acidity levels. I can easily see this grape being
used in Valpolicella and Amarone blends along
with Rondinella, Oseleta, and Molinara in the
course of the next decade. After that, fi nding
someone willing to try bottling it on its own will
only be a matter of time.
Cördusël
where it's found:
Emilia-Romagna.
national
registry code number:
not registered.
color:
white.
Also called Cör d'Usël, Cördusël is native to
the Faenza area; the only one to bottle a mon-
ovarietal Cördusël wine today is Paolo Fran-
cesconi. He makes it in the modern faddish
style of long macerations on the skins (a whop-
ping ninety days), and then—just in case it was
still too faint of heart for thrill-seeking modern
palates—fi nishes it off with another twelve
months in small oak barrels. Though all that
might fi nish you off too, the nose is interesting,
with hints of fl int, acacia honey, and aromatic
herbs. To the best of my knowledge there has
been no genetic testing done on the variety, and
so what this grape is or might be is open to
question.
