Renaissance in Italy: A Change in Style

Forty feet below street level in this northern Italian city, an ancient stretch of wall supports a ceiling blackened by mold. The wall was assembled from mortar and locally quarried rocks about 50 BC as part of a fortress protecting the city from invaders.

Today it protects the cellars of the Pio Cesare winery. It is a national historic monument and inspires wine maker Pio Boffa with great pride.

It is this ancient heritage that the older Italian grape growers and wine makers like to emphasize. They acknowledge that French wines are a worldwide standard, but they argue that the charm of their wines is their uniqueness and their heritage. As they point out, Italy was a wine-making country for centuries before the Romans planted vines in France.

Still, even Italian wines change. Today they are better than they’ve ever been, a product as much of science as soil, as much of experimentation as tradition.

This may be seen at the Bricco Rocche vineyard of Ceretto, just south of Alba. To anyone who thinks of Italian wine in terms of peasants pressing grapes with their feet, it is a shock: Gleaming high-tech stainless steel tanks and a hand-laid tile floor are only the visible clues to the drama beneath the cork.

The standard image of cheap Italian wine in the old raffia-covered bottle of Chianti is long gone. So is the idea that Italian wine must be red, partially oxidized and aged in ancient barrels that left a musty imprint.

Today some of the finest wines from Italy are white, and some from grape varieties Americans are not yet familiar with. Some of the best Italian reds are aged in new (French-made) oak barrels, and even the traditional wines such as Chianti and Barolo are being made unlike any wines of the past.

But the real shock is that prices are going through the roof. Though the wines are excellent, Italy has long been known as a source of bargains, and the latest trend is disconcerting to consumers aware of Italy’s ability to make quality wine at reasonable prices.

Still, interest in upscale Italian wines is high--and growing--in the United States, and especially so in Southern California. “Italian wines have been a huge thing for us,” says Don Schliff, president of Wine Warehouse, a major Los Angeles-based wholesaler. “Sales are off the chart.”

Schliff notes that sales of Italian wines took off as interest in Italian cooking rose. “It seems like every new restaurant that opens around here is Italian,” he says, “and they’re putting Italian wines on their lists.” He says many of the newer wines run out the door before he can taste them.

Italy ships more wine to the United States than any other country. Actually, shipments of Italian wine are off more than 60% since they peaked in 1984. That was when 27 million cases of Italian wine hit our shores. Of course, a huge chunk of it was Lambrusco, especially Villa Banfi’s Riunite.

Today, only 10 million cases of Italian wine are shipped to this country, but that still represents 41% of all wine imports, and Italy is well ahead of France at 7.5 million cases.

Most of the Italian wine imported here is still modest-quality stuff, such as Lambrusco, the sweet sparkling wine Asti Spumante and a good deal of old-fashioned Chianti, much of it to be served in carafes sitting on checkered-tablecloths.

The real revolution is at the upper end of the spectrum. The great Italian wine that’s coming in today, small in quantity though it is, offers more excitement than anyone could have imagined even less than a decade ago.

This wine appeals to wine lovers who readily see the quality for what it is and were never put off by the wine scandal that rocked Italy just four years ago, when deaths were reported in one small region of the country because some unscrupulous producers boosted the alcohol content in cheap wine with wood alcohol. That scandal caused an over-reaction in the United States, with some stores pulling all Italian wines off their shelves even though the Italian government says that none of the offending wine was ever exported. However, the scandal further hurt the already sinking imports of Italy’s less expensive wines, which appeal largely to people less knowledgeable about the great wines of Italy.

Today, the great wines are greater than ever, though the change is more in style than in type. Chianti is still being made the way Chianti has always been made, though a few anarchists on the fringe are challenging the old order. Barolo is still Barolo, though better (but still controversial) methods are being used to expand the concept.

During a 10-day tour of four important wine-growing regions of Italy in late July, I saw eye-opening wines and met some amazing people who are challenging tradition. One such individualist, known widely in his area but only now gaining a reputation here for excellence, is Giacomo Bologna, a former restaurant owner who discovered he had a superior vineyard up the hill from his home in Rocchetta Tanaro, a little town outside of Asti.

“They say that my father married my mother for her vineyards,” says his daughter, Raffaella, and laughs. “But I don’t believe that.”

Barbera, which grows well around Asti, is often made into a wine called Barbera d’Asti. It rarely commands as much as $15 a bottle. Bologna, who ages his Barbera exclusively in new French oak barrels, charges $45 a bottle for his wines--and demand is so high it’s hard to keep the wines in stock.

The 1986 Bologna Bricco dell’Uccellone is a monumental wine, with an amazing toastiness wrapped around a deep, fruity-spicy center. The 1986 Bricco della Bigotta offers more of the same complexity from a different vineyard site.

Bologna also makes a delicate and unique dessert wine, Brachetto d’Aqui ($18). It is slightly sparkling ( frizzante ), made from an aromatic red grape variety (in unfortunately small quantities). The result is a striking wine with strawberry aromas and spice, a surprisingly delightful and refreshing after-dinner sip.

His other wines, all marvelous, are not imported to the United States, a shame since one of them, La Monella, is a slightly sweet, slightly sparkling ( vivace ) red wine. It may not have a ready market in the United States but it is “a wine of tradition here,” says Raffaella. It’s fun to drink.

Meeting with Bologna is a delight. He speaks no English, but he questions his guests endlessly about the wine industry. He has toyed with the idea of planting some Chardonnay, says Raffaella.

Actually, Bologna admits that traditional varieties hold no interest for him. He prefers Grignolino to Cabernet. And a look at his cellar reveals sophisticated equipment that permits him to take once-lowly grapes and elevate them into wine of staggeringly fine dimensions.

His daughter says her father got into the wine business almost by accident. He was making wine for his own restaurant and some restaurants in Milan, who would serve it from a carafe.

“In 1961, there was not much wine, but it was very good and my father wanted to charge more for it,” says Raffaella. “But the restaurants didn’t want to pay, so he drove home and bottled it.”

Bologna’s wines now command top dollar and get it. Out here they are handled by Wine Warehouse, and of the Bologna wines and most of his Italian treasures, Schliff says:

“The wines are incredible. The technology they are using is state of the art, as good as you see in California. The quality was always there in some of the reds, now it’s hard to find a red wine that’s mediocre. But also, the whites are better than they’ve ever been. It’s a new ballgame.”

Next Week: Chianti.

Wine of the Week

As the Jewish high holy days approach, kosher wine becomes more and more in evidence. And Royal Wine Corp. of New York, which has long imported a wide line of kosher wines and also produces domestic kosher wines, has another array of good-quality and well-priced wines.

Royal distributes about 80% of the kosher wine sold in the United States, much of it under the direction of Peter Stern, a San Jose wine consultant who has coordinated wine projects both in California and Israel.

The best red wine I tasted in a recent evaluation was the 1988 Chateau de la Grave ($8), a Bordeaux Superieur with good strong Bordeaux aroma and excellent fruit and little astringency.

The best white wine was 1989 Baron Herzog Chardonnay from Sonoma County ($10.50), which was made by Dean Cox at Black Mountain Vineyards. The wine shows excellent tropical fruit and wonderful freshness, and appeared better structured than the also excellent 1988 Gamla Galil Chardonnay Special Reserve ($11), which was a trace too oaky, and the 1989 Herzog Chardonnay from France (Vin de Pays d’Oc, $7.50), which had a slightly short finish.

A 1987 Bartenura Chianti Classico ($8) had a light dusty aroma but attractive fruit in the mid-palate.

Other kosher wines that scored well:

1989 Herzog Gamay ($5.50)--Superb fruit and balance, a soft red wine that tastes much like an excellent Gamay Beajolais from France.

1989 Herzog White Gamay ($6.50)--An excellent blush wine with freshness and racy acidity in a not-totally-dry wine.

1988 Herzog Sauvignon Blanc ($7.50)--Olive, lemon and dill play tag in the aroma of a quite dry, very appealing wine.

1989 Herzog Chenin Blanc ($5.50)--Delightfully yeasty-leafy aroma with melons in the aftertaste.

1989 Herzog Johannisberg Riesling Late Harvest ($7 per half bottle)--Surprisingly fresh and fruity, with pineapple and pear aromas and wonderful creaminess in the sweet aftertaste, a marvelous dessert wine.

All Herzog wines are mevushal , which means they were made by a process that raises the temperature of the wine above 180 degrees in a flash pasteurization, making it kosher for even orthodox Jews.