Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
hectares mainly around the town of Brindisi,
near Francavilla, Carovigno, Ostuni, San
Michele Salentino, and San Vito dei Normanni.
It is usually blended with another rare local
variety called Impigno in the DOC wine
Ostuni. The wines are very light and fresh,
good for uncomplicated drinking and don't age
particularly well, but are perfect with light veg-
etable and fi sh dishes.
diffusely cultivated between San Daniele and
Fagagna right up into the hills of Spilimbergo,
today it is found only in the latter production
zone. It has medium-sized, triangular leaves
with small, conical bunches and one to two
wings. It's a very late ripening variety, charac-
terized by good vigor and productivity, but it
has small berries, which limits just how much
juice can be pressed from the bunches. Its lack
of resistance to oidium and peronospora was
the main reason it lost favor with local growers.
The wine, according to microvinifi cations made
by Friuli Venezia Giulia's Agenzia Regionale
per lo Sviluppo Agrario (ERSA), is ruby-purple
in hue, with bright aromas of blueberry and
blackberry, and a fresh palate full of vibrant
blackberry and delicately spicy nuances. The
latter notes are what give the wine a “smoky”
quality, though the fi nish does have a fl inty
edge. There are reportedly high benzenoid con-
centrations (60 percent), with high concentra-
tions of malvin and acylated anthocyanins,
hence wines with a stable, deep color. It has a
very good tannic structure that is neither bitter
nor astringent, and offers plenty of black fruit
aromas and fl avors with delicate spicy and lico-
rice nuances. To my way of thinking, in which
balance in wine is almost everything, Fumat
actually seems like a variety worth insisting on.
Fruhroter Veltliner
where it's found:
Trentino.
national regis-
try code number:
not registered.
color:
red.
With its German-sounding name, Fruhroter
Veltliner certainly comes across as a member of
the group of varieties that like Gewürztra-
miner, Kerner, Riesling, and Sylvaner really
cannot be considered native or traditional Ital-
ian grapes (at least not yet). However, producer
Alfi o Nicolodi believes that this variety has
been grown in his area of Trentino for centu-
ries at least, and so I'll defer to his experience
on the matter, and include the variety in this
topic, though it is probably most correct to con-
sider Fruhroter Veltliner as a native Austrian
variety only traditional to Italy. Apparently, it is
a natural crossing of Roter Veltliner and Sylva-
ner, but is unrelated to Austria's better-known
Gruner Veltliner. Alfi o Nicolodi is the only pro-
ducer of a monovarietal Fruhroter Veltliner
wine I know of in Italy; bright red, with grapey
aromas and fl avors of fresh red berries, it is an
ideal everyday wine best paired with simply
prepared fare.
Galioppo
where it's found:
Marche.
national regis-
try code number:
122.
color:
white.
Unfortunately, this variety's name sounds
and looks like Gaglioppo, a Calabrian variety
that is unrelated to Galioppo. Galioppo is a San-
giovese look-alike that holds court in the
Marche, where historically it was long confused
with the more famous Tuscan cultivar.
Fumat
where it's found:
Friuli Venezia Giulia.
national registry code number:
not regis-
tered.
color:
red.
Another of Italy's many grapes named after
a physical trait, Fumat takes its name either
from the smoky-black color of its berries or the
slightly smoky aromas and fl avors of the wine
(most experts favor the latter hypothesis). Once
Garofanata
where it's found:
Marche.
national regis-
try code number:
463.
color:
white.
Garofanata is one of the less obscure variet-
ies in this chapter and in fact you can fi nd mon-
