Better Technology, New Grapes Put Their Stamp on Italian Vintages

The changing face of Italian wine may be seen in the personalities and the images of Angelo Gaja and Bruno Ceretto, two of Italy’s greatest wine makers and two gentlemen who differ from one another in basic ways.

The changes in Italian wines are twofold, related to better technology and grape growing, and these changes are challenging wine-loving Americans as well as those on the European continent to accept two new ideas.

First, the traditional Italian wines are being made with more finesse and less of the inconsistency that once marked Italian red wine. For some traditionalists, this new style of wine making is akin to putting on a jazz concert at La Scala.

A second wave of change, now reaching tidal proportions, is in new Italian wine types using grape varieties new to Italy. Until about a decade ago, there was no such thing as Italian Chardonnay. Today dozens of Italian producers make Chardonnay and some of them are charging outrageous sums. Gaja, for instance, gets a cool 40 smackers for a bottle.

Moreover, there are now things like Italian Sauvignon Blanc and Italian Cabernet Sauvignon. And if that wasn’t enough of an indignity to tradition, Cabernet--a French grape variety--is being blended into wines made from traditional Italian grapes, such as Sangiovese, creating a whole new taste for the wine market.

Attracting Attention

Are wine lovers ready for all of this change? Perhaps so.

After the great impact that California’s best wines have made in the last few years on the American connoisseur, probably the second greatest amount of interest in the world of wine today is being generated by top-quality Italian wines.

And although Ceretto and Gaja represent different elements in this changing image for Italian wine, both of them appear to be gaining converts to what they are doing, despite high pricing of the best wines.

Gaja knows more about this latest wave of enthusiasm for Italy’s wines than anyone because he is as au courant as one can be. In fact, he is to Italy’s wine scene what Robert Mondavi is to America’s, what Len Evans is to Australia’s, and what the Baron Philippe de Rothschild was to France’s before his death last Jan. 20. (That mantle in France recently has been assumed by the charming Christian Moueix of Chateau Petrus.)

A dominating personality, Gaja dresses in the latest Italian fashion. He travels often to the United States and speaks English fluently; he imports California wine to Italy for the growing connoisseur constituency he encourages back home. And as a grower and wine maker, he is most eager to have the wines of his property, limited though they may be, recognized as some of the greatest in the world. And he’s not shy about charging a lot for them.

As an emissary for all Italian wine, he displays charm, a disarming wit and an open respect for his French and California competition. And he believes Italy’s best red wines have achieved a plateau of greatness worthy of any table.

I dined with Gaja and his importer, Neil Empson, recently, and the evening was a rare treat, not only because Gaja loves to serve his own wines, which are exceptional, but because he and Empson did not duck a single question. Gaja’s candor opened a veil that language and culture had kept closed.

I asked why Gaja was moving toward the use of French varieties, such as Chardonnay and Cabernet--which are atypical varieties for Italy. It is a question that I have rarely gotten a straight answer to, yet Empson said simply: “To create attention to what he (Gaja) is doing.”

Great Wine

Which is making great wine from the traditional Italian varieties, such as Nebbiolo.

Although Gaja makes an extraordinary (and pricey) Chardonnay, the best wines in the Gaja line are Barbarescos designated Sori Tildin and Sori San Lorenzo. Neither wine is made in any quantity (never more than 400 cases of either in a vintage). Is it valid, I asked, to make such tiny quantities of such magnificent wines when almost none of them are ever seen by average folk?

“If we are capable of making better and better wines in small quantities and offering them to foreign customers, I will have a chance to show that my land can produce great wines, as great as anyone’s,” he said.

I asked about the move toward more fruit and less earthiness in Italian red wines in the last few years, and Gaja pointed out that it has been barely 15 years since temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks have been used in Italy. When fermentation is carried out in steel, the fruit is retained and the wine can’t pick up any of the “barrelly” aromas once associated with red wines.

“The use of stainless steel is very important” to the fruit and concentration of flavors in these wines, he said. In addition, he said, a lot of firms are now discarding the old barrels they once used in favor of new oak, which imparts a fresher sort of complexity to the wine, not the oxidized and musty elements that once were expected in such wines.

As we spoke, Gaja poured his 1979 Barbaresco Costa Russi, which showed deep-scented hints of cherries, cranberries and pomegranate, with a long, complex, and very silky finish. The current releases of Gaja Barbarescos, without the vineyard designations, are selling for $45 a bottle. They are rarely discounted, and some wine collectors call these wines bargains.

Pricing the wines as he does, Gaja is reflecting the higher cost of making them (tiny production to guarantee that only the best barrels reach the market). In addition, such pricing, by implication, places Gaja’s wines emotionally in the same strata as the First Growth Bordeaux and many top-quality French Burgundies.

In effect, he’s saying, “My wines are as good as anything made in France.”

A Different Style

Unlike Gaja, Bruno Ceretto is a strict traditionalist who nonetheless buys the theory that the improvement in wine-making technology in the last decade has made the wines considerably better.

Ceretto, a smallish man, dresses conservatively; he is quiet and reserved. He speaks little English and prefers to have a translator conduct his interviews. But he defends his nation’s wines with as much acerbity.

“I think Italy reached the heights (of wine making skill) only 10 years ago,” he said. “But only in the last two decades have we had the economic ability to make these wines this way, as good as they are.”

Even though Gaja and Ceretto both represent the Piedmont district, and both work largely with the same Nebbiolo grape, Ceretto’s top wine is Barolo; Chardonnay and Cabernet are not a consideration for him. Cabernet, he says, changes the traditional character of the wine.

With his brother, enologist Marcello Ceretto, Bruno Ceretto has tried in the last decade to gain recognition worldwide for Barolo, such as his Barolo Bricco Roche wines that are priced as high as the Gaja Barbarescos.

“We have this problem when we are discussing these wines with great French restaurants,” said Ceretto. He said there was a resistence on the part of the French to have any Italian wines on their wine lists.

The comment recalls the French-Italian wine wars of the last few years in which French grape growers took umbrage at importation of cheaper Italian wine. The bitterness grew so strong at one point that trucks carrying Italian wine were attacked soon after they crossed the border into France.

“But we are starting to make inroads in France,” said Ceretto. As an example of the wines now being seen in top French restaurants, Ceretto showed his 1982 Barolo Bricco Roche “Prapo.” The wine has a refined cherry and tar aroma that is deep and complex, with a rich, complete aftertaste. It is a classic wine, better structured than many Barolos of the past.

And there isn’t as much opposition to its price, $50, as you might think, Ceretto said, because it’s clear that the wine is superb.

Comparing Price Categories

The least expensive of Ceretto’s wines are still double-digit, but they are exceptional values at a time when so much good Italian wine is rising in price to above $20 a bottle.

The 1983 Barolo Zonchera ($16) offers massive, aromatic black-cherry and spice characteristics with depth and power; the 1985 Barbaresco Asij ($16) has a ripe fruit/pipe tobacco-like headiness with lean, hard lines that should develop beautifully in the bottle.

For a wine that compares, to a degree, with the Gaja wines and is more available, try the 1985 Barbaresco Brico Asili ($35), a most traditional wine with more delicacy and floral and faded rose notes and a sweet, classic finish. This is a wine for the cellar or, if you’re going to drink it now, to decant for an hour before pouring.

A new wine for Ceretto is the lovely 1986 Belange Arneis ($14), a white wine that offers a spiced aroma akin to lime rind with a soft, appley crispness in the finish.

Recent price increases for Italian wine, including his own, bother Ceretto, so he has announced a three-year freeze on prices, a tactic that a Gaja might not adopt.

Still, each in his own way, these two leaders of the Italian wine community are generating as much interest in all wines from their country by doing one thing exceedingly well: make great wine.

Wine of the Week: 1986 La Jota Zinfandel ($10)--As red Zinfandel makes a fitful comeback from the dead, this is one style of wine that will be at the forefront. I love the spice component in the 1986 Quivira (recommended here last week), and this wine is more along the lines of a fine Claret, with delicate spice and vanilla hints, a generous amount of fruit, and a softness that makes the wine perfect to match with food today, but which will age for a few years and become rounder.