7th-11th April 2017

vinitaly

vinitaly 2017 7th-11th April 2017 vinitaly 2017 7th-11th April 2017

Ed’s top picks for Vinitaly 2017

Fontanafredda – The best range we tasted in terms of variety and quality. The Briccotondo Arneis was marvellous, great price, complex and mineral like.

Bertani Valpolicella DOC, very elegant, soft, supple, a baby of a wine. Definitely the find of the trip!

Satori Marani Bianco, very fine wine for money, rich powerful garganega, named after founders son.

Umani Ronchi Their new delux Pecorino – which will be a parcel wine – was amazing, as was the Cumaro.

Chiarli Pruno Nero Dry Red Sparkling – it sounds wrong but it works.

Planeta Etna Rosso

Ruggeri Giustino B

Ferrari Perle

Alice Gatto

Producer highlight: Elena Fucci

I met Elena Fucci at the very end of the Vinitaly show. She was, understandably, exhausted but I admired her dedication and passion to host us and present her winery

with great passion.

The Fucci family owns 6.7ha of Aglianico vines, which range from 55 to 65 years in age. The vineyards are close to the volcano’s summit, at 600m above the sea level. The soil here is slightly different in respect to others parts of the Aglianico del Vulture denomination. It’s an extinct volcano site, with pockets of clay between the layers of lava.

Did you know they produce just one wine? It’s called Il Titolo and is 100% Aglianico. I loved the highly minerality nuances for Il Titolo. The strength and minerality of the volcanic land, and the acidity which is enhanced by extreme temperature fluctuations. This is a wine with a great character and personality.

Aglianico is said to be one of Italy’s

three best wine grapes – along with Nebbiolo and Sangiovese – and it’s developed the reputation as the ‘Barolo of the South’. Aglianico was shipped to northern Italy, and Bordeaux, to supplement the supply of weak vintages from more famous wines.

on the roadA word from the team

Producer highlight: Cenatiempo

The south of Italy, with its dramatic landscape and unique terroir, continues to surprise and entertain demanding palates and wine lovers the world over.

Ischia is a stunning volcanic island off the coast of Naples, and Cenatiempo is the most historic and exciting winery of the island. Pasquale is the man behind the Biancolella and Forastera white autochthon grapes grown with organic and biodynamic practises. He’s also introduced us to Per’e Palumm, which in local dialect means ‘pigeon feet’, like the reflection

of the red wine in the glass. This indigenous red variety, cultivated in Ischia and around the province of Naples, is fast gaining popularity for the low and delicate tannins, and the youthful style is suitable for fish-based recipes like Zuppa di Pesce or pizza and various tomato sauces. Plus, it can be drunk chilled! It’s fresh, fruity, supple, versatile, real fun, and a true contrast to the more masculine Taurasi with prominent tannins and longevity. It would be a great addition to our portfolio to celebrate diversity and authenticity from the south of Italy.

Pina Bello

Kate’s top picks for Vinitaly 2017

Over the course of the festival we tasted some truly amazing wines, but two which really stick out in my mind was the new Pecorino from Umani Ronchi and the 2016 Valpolicella from Bertani. We were incredibly lucky in that the wines from all producers were showing really well, but in particular, the line-ups from Umani Ronchi and Fontanafredda were truly outstanding.

Kate Lucas

Earlier this month, a team of Enotria&Coe Italian-wine enthusiasts travelled to Verona, Italy, for the 51st edition of Vinitaly. This year, more than 128,000 visitors from 142 countries travelled to the Italian city for the four-day festival which, over the years, has established its status as one of the world’s most important wine and spirits exhibitions. In the following pages, our travelling team spills some of their highlights from the trip.

Ed Donnelly

vinitaly 2017 7th-11th April 2017 vinitaly 2017 7th-11th April 2017

on the roadA word from the team

Mari JuhasooProducer highlights

A trip to Bertani

Whilst Bertani is a large producer, it was really impressive to see the history of winemaking there – the 185hl cement tanks they’ve been using since 1930s; the original wooden vats (think 400hl) which were one of the first fermentation vessels; and all the different types of oak barrels they use now for fermentation and aging, playing around with Slavonian, French oak and local cherry wood. The winery was immaculate and clean, beautifully presented and maintained.

From Bertani I was really impressed with their 2014 Vintage Soave – beautiful minerality, freshness and fruit, with creamy roundness – all

in a perfect balance. I hadn’t tried this wine for a long time, and was pleasantly surprised. It was paired with a polenta dish with smoked anchovies and sun-dried tomatoes – the sweet and salty elements in the dish worked ideally with the creamy freshness of the wine.

The new Ribolla Gialla 2014 from Puiatti was excellent too. Very elegant, delicate, fresh – with a tiny bit of skin contact giving it the body and structure, but still retaining excellent freshness and purity.

Fontanafredda – I though all the new vintages showed extremely well. A couple of highlights:

Gavi di Gavi 2016 had lovely ripeness and creaminess to it. I was pleasantly surprised by the Briccotondo Arneis and Barbera, very fresh and juicy fruit and Arneis surprisingly soft. Babrera d’Alba was showing beautifully, lots of

moreish forest berries, juicy and well balanced, not too acidic or harsh, with soft fruit. The interesting one was their sparkling wine Contessa Rosa Metodo Classico 2012 made with Barolo 1967 dosage!

Umani Ronchi Pecorino Centovie 2015 – this new, slightly higher-end Pecorino has less sweetness, more round and minerally; an excellent varietal example. Beautiful packaging. Very tasty!

Ruggeri Giustino B. 2015 – the best Italian sparkling wine according to Gambero Rosso! The grapes come from older vines, wine goes through longer and cooler fermentation to retain the complexity and freshness. It has about 16 g/l residual sugar, so technically extra dry which is the classic style of prosecco. It doesn’t feel sweet but just round and creamy, extremely drinkable. And beautiful packaging!

Planeta Didacus Chardonnay – superb! Like a top Burgundy but from Sicily! It was full, rich, complex – simply delicious! Crafted from the oldest Chardonnay plants in Sicily, tiny yields, selection and a very small amount made – a true collector’s piece.

Surprisingly I also quite enjoyed the Nonino Fragolino (and I normally don’t like grappa!) – it was very aromatic, full of flavour and actually really nice. Their presentation is superb and they also shared ideas for serving – e.g grappa with loads of ice in a big wine glass.

Les Somerville

Quite simply the best yet is the title I will go with.

The positivity from our producers on the back of the very successful Annual Tasting was infectious. As always, the sunny weather helps but the key to a successful VinItlay is planning, and a huge thanks to Elisa and everyone else that helped to make what is organised chaos seem

incredibly well organised.

I was out in two stages, the first was with key accounts, and we had the pleasure of visiting Chiarli en route. Chiarli’s wines are so perfect for the environment they’re made in, and the link between history and modernity is fascinating to see.

The programme we had planned for my customers was great as there was time for us to benchmark against our main industry competitors, and this allowed the quality of the wines to shine through. It’s easy to take some of our big agencies for granted – such as Mandrarossa – but the range, price points and quality were fantastic. Milena, the winemaker, is so passionate and knowledgeable and she really helps to bring the wine to life.

At Vinitaly, there was a very interesting theme that we

started to pick up on as we met with the various producers, and that was a great proportion of young enthusiastic winemakers developing through these wineries. It’s interesting to see how our younger customers click very quickly with someone of their age group, and their interests in social media bring them together so well.

For me there were so many fantastic wines that I tried: the Fontanafredda 1967 Barolo Dosage, and Traditional Method sparking were both incredible. The new Pecerino from Umani Ronchi was lovely. The dessert wine from Mandrarossa and Pignoletto Chiarli were sooooo good, and makes you remember how good and diverse Italian sparkling wine can be.

But for me, the outright winner was the 1997 Special Edition, Giulio Riserva Ferrari. OMG.

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on the roadA word from the team

Edward MercerA flying visit around the World’s

largest wine show

Just before Easter I was very fortunate to be included in a trip to Italy for the largest wine show in the world. This annual event called ‘Vinitaly’ is held in the not very pretty part of the very pretty little city of Verona. During the show the population of Verona doubles to almost 400,000 as the wine world descends to talk and taste, but unlike most big wine shows this is not an international affair, unbelievably all wines are strictly Italian.

The 16th century palazzos are nowhere to be seen as the party of ten of us walk through security and into the exhibition park of regionally themed pavilions. These massive spaces hold exhibitions stands for some of Italy’s largest wineries featuring tasting and

meeting rooms, display spaces and in many cases roof top balconies and restaurant facilities. Alongside these huge and very flash stands are hundreds of smaller stands with vineyard proprietors proudly showing their wine flights. This should be a lot of fun...

Day 1 of the show was a blur with visits to some of our key wineries.

First off was Ruggeri for the best prosecco tasting you could ever hope for. Included in the lineup, and some nice nibbles to kick off, were the Giustino B which was voted the best sparkling wine in Italy last year by Gambero Rosso, and it’s also available in magnums, wow! The Extra Brut was also a highlight for me, a mineral-dry, vibrant prosecco which cries out for seafood.

Cleto Chiarli was next. More delicious sliced meats and little blini style sandwiches. This was a revisit of some of my favourite wines; Pignoletto, Rosé, Lambrusco and red sparkling Pruno Nero. All going well so far and starting to forget the early flight out.

An off-the-schedule visit to the Cenatiempo stand. These unusual and delicious wines are from the island of Ischia off the Naples coast. The star for me, and all the group, was undoubtedly the Kalimera Biancolella, fresh, limey and grapey white, really delicious.

Sartori was next for one of the bit hitters, oh and lunch of fresh pasta

and strawberry tart. This significant winery makes huge volume but their best and most famous wines are Regolo and Marani, named after the founder of the company and his wife. These are both excellent. One of my fellow travelers also called Ed commented that he thought the Marani Garganega white was one of the best hidden gems in our wine list, and I tend to agree.

Nonino Grappa for a post prandial. The first offering was the Nonino Amaro poured liberally over ice in a massive glass, delicious. The 8 year old grappa is also very good, almost like a cross between a fine aged rum and cognac, very surprising. The use of glasses at this stand would leave a bartender fuming, as we must have used 100 glasses between the group and some poor person then had to clean them all. Anyway, onwards…

The Umani Ronchi stand was enormous and we were ushered upstairs to the private roof tasting thingy. Getting a bit tired now, but this tasting was fantastic with a brand new Pecorino Centovie, the inexpensive San Lorenzo from the Conero hills and the wine of the show, 2003 Rosso Cumaro from double magnum all just singing from the rafters.

Last visit today to the owners of the largest contiguous vineyards in Barolo, Fontanafredda. This tasting could have been most notable for the sparkling wine made with 1967

barolo dosage (no idea if we will get any but I’ll let you know if we do!), and also the barman who sounded just like Matt Damon. It was actually most notable for the shear quality of the mid-level wines; Gavi di Gavi, Barbera and Moscato were all outstanding, a really impressive tasting line up.

Done for the day, off to the prettier bit for Aperol Spritz and a look at that Balcony.

The first stop on day 2 of Vinitaly was with Sicily’s Mandrarossa. After a latish night, the first wines were always going to be a challenge but again it was some of the less expensive wines of the show that

were best, in this case Nero d’Avola and single vineyard Urra de Mare sauvignon blanc which showed really well, and as the island’s biggest exporter it was really great to see how good these wines are.

Last producer to visit at the show was the mighty Planeta also from Sicily. On hand to guide us through was Alessio Planeta, founder and top man. Included in the very extensive tasting were some new crackers under the La Segreta range; Grillo and Nero d’Avola, also the brand new Mamertino from Capo Milazzo in the north east was outstanding, and a new super-premium chardonnay.

Last conversation of the show was with Alessio Planeta agreeing the trip he will be making to Bath in the Autumn to give a customer dinner – more to follow as soon as we can on that!

So Vinitaly had been very intense and also a lot of fun, and we were off to Bertani in Valpolicella and then to Ferrari in Trento for visits to these famous and hugely impressive estates (I’ll save this for the next blog). I could have been at Vinitaly for a month, if it was on that long, and probably not tasted half of the wines at the show, but as an wine experience this was very special. I look forward to introducing you to some of these wines in person.

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happeningsProducer news

Francesca Planeta Why is Vinitaly important to you?

It’s an opportunity to meet B2B clients, not just at the level of importers like at Prowein or Vinexpo, but also customers, restaurants, wine buyer specialist from all around the world. They’re able to taste the new wines and olive oils with us, and enjoy a beautiful and romantic city.

What is new from you this year?

Th two biggest things we’re looking forward to sharing is our new La Segreta range, and the release of Didacus, the Chardonnay dedicated to Diego Planeta.

Didacus: A Chardonnay for Diego Planeta

Introduced to the public for the first time at Vinitaly, Didacus represents

the essence of Planeta’s history and honours the winery’s founder. The all-new wine is crafted from vines in Planeta’s very first vineyard, planted in 1985 on the banks of Ulmo lake. As well as bearing the memory of a symbol, for Planeta Didacus expresses elegance and tradition, family and the future, and it embodies their vision of wine and Sicily.

For Planeta, it was Chardonnay, above all, which opened the doors to the world, and allowed them to present their lesser-known wines. Since the first vines were

planted more than 30 years ago, the vineyard on the banks of the lake still remains distinctly visible; Didacus comes from the best bunches of grapes, selected by hand, pressed and sent to ferment in barriques.

The first bottles produced – just 6,996 – arrived for the 2014 vintage, which was described as ‘the perfect vintage’ for the climatic conditions throughout the whole of Sicily, and at Menfi in particular.

Diego’s grandfather Vito used to call him by different names. Usually Diego; Dieguzzo for moments of intimacy; and Didacus for the times of his not-so-rare misbehaviour. And it is from here, where the significance of the name comes: it marks the passage between generations, and brings to the future the inheritance of an agricultural tradition, with an approach guided by creativity

and by courage, by the impulse to innovate and be open to influence.

La Segreta: Changing its appearance, preserving body and soul

With its new label La Segreta returns to the centre of the old map of the Ulmo estate, where Planeta’s first winery was established in 1995, between the fortress of Mazzallakkar and the ancient olive groves surrounding Lake Arancio. Here their story began, around the 16th century farmhouse which is the oldest family residence, and here the first bottle of La Segreta was born, named after the woods surrounding the estate.

Planeta planted their first vines at Ulmo, beginning those experiments with indigenous and international varieties, which they then continued during their journey throughout Sicily. Ever faithful to these instincts, they continued to produce La Segreta wines with blends of these varieties, which are cultivated entirely in their own vineyards.

While they’ve changed the label to commemorate the wines origins, Planeta has preserved the body and soul of the wines, with their unique and unmistakeable character evoking the varied nature of the island’s territories.

Also, be sure to watch this space for a special parcel of Riesling from Etna, which will be landing imminently.

WE ARE CHANGING THE LOOK

BUT PRESERVING THE BODY AND SOUL

50% Nero d’Avola

25% Merlot

20% Syrah

5% Cabernet Franc

50% Grecanico

30% Chardonnay

10% Fiano

10% Viognier

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happeningsProducer news

Umani Ronchi

During the 51st edition of Vinitaly in Verona earlier this month, Umani Ronchi released their first important project from their vineyards in Roseto degli Abruzzi. An estate with mainly Montepulciano and a small parcel of Pecorino, that in the last years has enriched the quality and tipicity of the grapes.

Since the first harvest, the team decide to cultivate the vineyards by adhering to organic methods, because the location, soil and climate were perfect for this kind of farming.

It’s in this area – the Centovie village – from where the Umani Ronchi team looked over the estate for the first time in 2000, that their Pecorino was born. A wine where, in our opinion, you can find all the elements of this amazing estate between the Gran Sasso mountain and the Adriatic coast.

Vinitaly: in pictures

A (green) thumbs up for Ferrari

In recent news, all vineyards belonging to the Lunelli Group, located in Trentino, and grown for the production of Ferrari Trentodoc have received organic certification. This achievement comes at the end of a long and challenging process that started more than 20 years ago. A number of studies and pilot projects were carried out in the field in partnership with Fondazione Edmund Mach, and showed that once the proper balance of the vineyard is found, the effort of growing organic vineyards in alpine regions gives excellent results. The commitment of the Lunelli family has been rewarded thanks to putting natural soil fertility, environmental protection, and working conditions back at the heart of farming activities.

Over the years the use of herbicides and chemical fertilizers has been banned, promoting instead traditional practices such as the use of green manure, natural fertilisers, and the exclusive use of the safest plant protection products that preferably contain natural substances such as copper or sulphur.