The UnCorker

A Contrast in Fiano- De Conciliis Goes Both Ways

The Gambero Rosso says Bruno De Conciliis is a “sort of modern samuri”- to be honest, we have no idea what they’re talking about, though his wines do kill.

In the remote Campanian region of  Cilento, it is sun-baked mountains and hills, ancient rock and soil, scrub and herbs grow wild and the ancient grapes, aglianico and fiano thrive. De Conciliis vineyards run down toward the Mediterrean- this rugged beauty is reflected in the wines.

Viticoltori De Conciliis is not afraid to take chances, and sometimes they fall short- their passito Ra!, first made of barbera, now mostly aglianico, was a very difficult wine to like or understand when they first started making it- tart and cooked, it hammered the palate and the senses into a strange sort of defeat. Mostly though, their risks pay dividends- producing fiano in two radically different ways showcases not just the beauty of Fiano in the right hands, the skills of the De Conciliis’s, but also provides us with a bit of a history lesson.

The Romans knew Fiano as Vitis Apiana, meaning the bees were all over it, prized for its pinenut hazelnut nuttiness, its fresh herbacousness, an intriguing smokiness, and its ability to retain a fresh, acidic profile in the heat of southern Italy.

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Weird Wine of the Week: 2004 Anima Negra ‘An’ Mallorca

Here we have a wine that has been so successful at clawing it’s way out of weirdness status, that it’s tempting to think of it as normal. We refer, of course, to the stellar reputation, wide (ish) distribution, abundant good press, and all around Parker-y goodness that rains down on the folks at Anima Negra. But people, let’s do a reality check here! First of all, the wine is from Mallorca – a now swank and touristy island off the coast of Spain where it’s easier to catch a glimpse of Catherine Zeta Jones than it is to find yourself a glass of truly great vino (at least that’s exported). Second of all, the wine is made almost exclusively from an heirloom, indigenous grape varietal that grows only on this surprisingly fertile rock out in the Balearic chain of islands -Callet – which is in itself, a pretty weird product of Mother Nature’s imagination. Thirdly, the winemaker manages to capture the one-off, outsized personality of this place in the bottle in a way that his Catalan neighbors on the mainland – even those in Priorat – are rightly jealous of. Oh, and did we mention that this stuff’s made by a trio of young bucks with a real commitment to naturalistic minimalism – something that is still rare in Spanish winemaking?

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Weird Wine(s) of the Week- 2007 Coenobium & Coenobium Rusticum Monastero Suoro Cistercensi

Coenobium is latin; in this sense it refers to communal monasticism, or cenobitic living. This blend of malvasia, grecchetto, verdicchio and trebbiano is an organically produced beauty from the Lazio hills, north of Rome, and qualifies as WWOW for a bunch of reasons.

The first and most obvious being the producers themselves; nuns- that’s right, sisters. Living cenobitically, as it were. Lives given over to prayer, worship and communal labor. Living modestly on the produce they can grow, or in this case, vinify.

If we UnCorker’s had a time machine(and what we wouldn’t give for that) we could go back to a time long ago when religious orders kept viticulture alive. As you’ve read in these pages, after the fall of the Roman Empire, during the dark ages, it was the church that kept all that the Roman’s had learned about viticulture alive. Today, we don’t think twice about drinking beer made by Belgian Trappists, but wine made by nuns- weird.

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