Weird Italian Grapes #319: Marzemino

Having pursued this wine thing in a mildly fanatical way for several years, Blind Muscat has gotten intimate (through swallowing) with an awful lot of grape varieties, some of them pretty obscure. I always try to serve dinner guests at least one bottle they’ve never encountered before, and I make a point of getting at least one more new variety under my palate’s belt every month.

I figured meeting my quota for October would be easy, because I would be spending a week in Italy, home, like Spain and Greece, to an astonishing array of indigenous vines with histories stretching back hundreds of years, some of them grown only in one tiny picket of the country. As it turned out, this press trip focused on the Chianti-Brunello zone, where familiar old Sangiovese is king, and on the Maremma, where the usual international suspects—Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah—are the stock in trade. We did run across some Greco Bianco in white blends, and Colorino and Ciliegiolo in with the reds, but those I had some experience with before.

The first and only complete stranger to pass my lips came the last night of the trip, at a dinner in Rome hosted by the Astoria winery, located further north in the Proseco country. Astoria makes a whiz-bang Proseco di Valdobbiadene, one of the best I and most of our crew had ever had; we were tempted to just keep drinking it and skip the rest of the  wines. Which would have been a mistake, because when we got to their signature red, the Colli di Conegliano Rosso (the proprietary name is “Croder”), lo and behold, alongside the Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot was a good dose of Marzemino—my first ever.

This grape’s pedigree still confuses me. Our host for the dinner, through a translator, made it sound like a cross (incrocio in Italian) developed intentionally by some northern Italian grape breeder. But the Oxford Companion says only that DNA profiling indicates the variety is related to Teroldigo and Refosco, suggesting it emerged the old-fashioned was by spontaneous vineyard cross-fertilization. In any case, it’s a fleshy, strongly-scented red, often made into slightly fizzy wines, and a ton of fun. In Astoria’s lineup, it not only found its way into their big red blend, but came on strong as a passito-style (dried grape) dessert wine (the local style is called Refrontolo) and closed our evening reincarnated as grappa. The passito was especially delightful, not too sweet, a modest 9% alcohol, intriguingly novel, only about $30 for a 500 ml bottle . . . and not available in the US.

Clearly, I have to get back to Italy.

Comments

[Sonadora]

Hey, excellent blog. I love your writing style. I found you here from your comment on Dr.Vino's blog. Keep up the good work!

[zach]

The weird and different stuff is always fun. I also find it seems to help with my palate when I return to the more conventional bottles

[Henrik]

Well in your strange grapes... Incrocio Manzoni for the sweet wine is a blend of Pinot Gris(/ Tokai, the name you can't say that today)and Riesling... Not that strange. Has the Aromatics of the Pinot anf the asidity and freshness of the Riesling. Has been around for many years. No bog grape but growing. Is also planted in many regions of northern spain due to the master Wine maker Joan Milas passion for it. In some regions labeled as Chardonnay due to that it is no a valid varietal.

Any questions about strange varietals, send me a mail. i find the Oxord good for weiters, but not a compleat knowlage if you go into Vitriology.

Best Regards,

Henrik Heikel