The UnCorker

The Great Whites of Campania

It’s 60 degrees today, and we at The UnCorker are looking to spring and all that means to us; grilled seafood, warm days and cool nights, the end(for now) of slow cooked heavy meals with big warming reds, and the chance to drink white wine all night long. The whites we’re thinking about right now; the bright, focused, unoaked whites from sunny Campania. The Romans knew Campania, with its capital of Napoli as the premier viticultural spot of the isthmus, if not the whole Mediterranean world. The region offers endless hillside sites, volcanic soils, plenty of sun, and temperature variations from day to night extreme enough to allow grapes to ripen over a very long growing season(Aglianico grown here is often not harvested until November) without cooking the grapes.

When the Northern Italians were producing oxidized whites that could only be characterized as drinkable at best, Campanians were making bright, focused white wines of real character. While Campania saw a decrease in quality and consumption in their whites for a time, the 1980’s saw investment in the cellar, and a lot of hard work in the vineyards; together, these factors have brought recognition and a big market for these remarkable, well-priced wines.

2007 Fiano Di Avellino Colli Di Lapio Clelia

Pale yellow. Intense nose opens slowly to offer  aromas of green apple, minerals, thyme and a bit of minty herbacousness. Green pear and stone fruit, menthol and a bit of brinyness typical of these southern whites  emerge on the palate, with strong, bright acids giving them focus. Finishes very long and clean, with lingering flavors of lemon, pine needles and powdered stone.

The Romans knew Fiano Di Avellino as Vitis Apiana, meaning the bees were all over it, prized for its almond hazelnut nuttiness and its fresh green pears, there are plenty of producers to be on the watch for; Ocone, Matroberadino, Terredora to name a few.

Falanghina is another ancient grape, the name deriving from the phalanges the Greeks would use to train the vine. Falanghina is bright and juicy like Fiano, with fewer savory aspects, but often with more bright tropical, zesty fruit.

2007 Falanghina Cantina del Taburno

Bright yellow with green tints, zesty lemon and stone fruits- beautifully fresh and appealing, with hints of almonds and white flowers. Acid and crisp minerality balance the fruit perfectly- a wine for sipping with shellfish, or a light meal, or sitting out in the sun on a warm afternoon.

Other good producers are abundent, just remember that these are wines to be enjoyed young-  We at The UnCorker even found a Puglian Falanghina (a real oddity) that knocked our socks off; from Alberto Longo, worth seeking out.

Greco di Tufo is believed to be the ancestor of Siciliy’s Grecanico, and Umbria’s Grecchetto- grapes that don’t really resemble Greco all that much, but show how long its been around, and how over time, vitis viniferia can mutate and change. Greco di Tufos have that typical Campanian brightjuicyacidity, on a slightly leaner frame then Falanghina or Fiano; they can be racy with a mineral delicacy that is quite refreshing.

2007 Greco di Tufo ‘Loggia della Serra’ Terredora Dipaoalo

A single vineyard Greco di Tufo from one of Campania’s premier producers, this is a powerful Greco di Tufo with aromas of white peach, green fruit and an herbal almost minty quality. Very precise delineation on the palate, with a great deal of focus, and the typical juicy acidity and pronounced minerality one expects from Campania.

Coda di Volpe is not a wine you’ll bump into many shops or restaurants, small production and small demand adds up to not much imported, and thats a shame, because Coda di Volpe is capable of producing memorable wines with real character. The name means foxtail, a reference to the shape of the elongated bunches on the vine, sometimes used in blends, Coda di Volpa can be a bit fuller and fleshier then Greco, Fiano, or Falanghina, but still has ample Campanian traits.

2007 Coda di Volpe ‘Bianco’ Perillo

Bright straw yellow with green tints, the Perillo Coda di Volpe has bright juicy green pear and an almost lifted nose with a hint of chamomille and white flowers and vanilla. With a layer of fat richness underneath all that fruit, its followed by a long liltingly acidic finish- a real beauty that makes us think about fat shrimp coming right off a grill.

2006 Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil La Martinière

The 2006 Saint Nicolas de Bourgueil from La Martniere is a hard wine to figure- Cabernet Franc can be many things; dark and peppery, rich and plush, or in this case bright red, spicy, and almost aggressivly acidic, this one needs a chill and some cured meats, or perhaps some cold chicken. Rarely does stainless steel vinification seem so evident; we would have guessed carbonic maceration as well. On the nose this is all bright juicy cherries, extremly fresh on the palate, again, so bright and fresh that without some kind of fattiness, it just doesn’t work.

2004 Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero

Another delicious Tempranillo, this one from the Ribera del Duero. Ribera del is the Cotes du of Spain, literally the banks(coast, rib) of… these wines tend to be gutsier more extracted wines then Rioja- about 80 miles Northeast, with vineyards on both sides of the Duero river, further West, the famous Douro river of Portugal- The Ribera del Duero lies on a plateau at 850 meters, the summer days are hot, dry and bright, the night temperature can drop as much as 40 degrees- this kind of temperature variation is the key to lively acidity in big extracted red wines, and Condado del Haza has all that. Big, extracted bright fruit, blueberries, cassis, chocolate and espresso dominate the palate along with a bit of smoked meat. On top of all that, bright juicy acidity lend a freshness that makes this wine seem lighter then it is. 15 months in American oak rounds out the tannins and gives notes of cedar and vanilla- another wine for grilled meat or rustic cheeses.

2004 Finca Allende Rioja

From time to time you’ll hear people compare Tempranillo to Pinot Noir, a comparison that almost never stands up to scrutiny- with the 2004 Finca Allende Rioja, the comparison stands up. 100% Tempranillo aged in new and used French oak, this doesn’t taste like Pinot, but like good Pinot, this wine is packed with dense fruit, dark rather then light, has a smoky, earthy aromatic complexity, leather and mint, and with all this denseness and complexity, it has a lightness that dances on the palate and keeps you reaching for the glass. This is modernist Rioja, very drinkable at this tender young age, french oak and no designation on the bottle telling us that its a crianza, which it is-Great to drink now with roast or grilled meat, definitly be cool to lay a few of these down and watch their evolvution. Available for $20-$25, a definite deal.

Weird Wine of the Week: 2006 Gugiarolo Pinot Nero Vercesi Del Castellazzo

Weird? Maybe not, when you think about it, lots of white wines come from red grapes- a blanc de noir from champagne is 100% Pinot Noir, as are plenty of white sparklers from around the world. Still wines like this are pretty rare, so it makes you wonder, why take Pinot Noir and vinify it white? Often, as in the case of lots of those sparklers, its that that Pinot adds aromatic complexity and loads of acid despite(or because of) the fact that it often doesn’ t fully ripen in northern zones. The 2006 Gugiarolo from Vercesi del Castellazzo is a case in point; straw yellow with green highlights,  delicate floral aromatic complexity that includes a bit of lime skin, lemon and a bitter almond skin like finish and a ton of acidity-  the Gugiarolo a wine thats gonna blow your hair back? Probably not, itsclean, its bright and easy to drink, but to us at The UnCorker, its instructive- from this bottle, we learn that red wine gets its color from its skin, not its flesh, that its fun to say Oltrepo Pavase,  the DOC, which clearly allows almost anything if it allows for this unusual wine.