The Cru Artisan College Study Guide 9

Santiago

Marsala the wine acquired its name from the western Sicilian town in which it was first produced. Though contemporary imagery often relegates it to the kitchen as a sauce component, to do so fails to capture the unique enjoyment that a quality Marsala brings to the table as an aperitif, course pairing or post prandial delight.

Like most fortified wines of the old world, the ori-gins of Marsala started with the simple challenge of how to best transport, sell and enjoy the local wine in pleasurable condition. The most creditable ver-sion of the history is attributed to the English trader John Woodhouse. In 1770, Woodhouse landed at the port of Marsala and discovered the local wine produced in the region, which was aged in wooden casks and tasted similar to Spanish and Portuguese fortified wines then popular in England. Woodhouse is credited with creating the first formal “recipe” for Marsala in 1773 that incorporated 8.5 gallons of dis-tilled grape spirit to each 105 gallon barrel of wine. It took Woodhouse two decades before opening a warehouse and full scale operation in 1796 that focused on the export of Marsala to foreign markets. His success was followed by Benjamin Ingham in 1812 and Vincenzo Florio in 1833. Florio purchased Woodhouse’s firm, among others, in the late 19th century and consolidated the Marsala wine industry.

Marsala is produced using primarily the Grillo, Inzolia, and Catarratto white grape varieties, and must achieve at minimum 17% alcohol after fortification. Marsala wines are classified according to their color, sweetness, and the duration of their aging. While rarely seen outside of their local market the quality focused examples of Marsala are profound examples of fortified wines that hold their place among the world’s great fortified wines.

Today, Florio remains the leading producer of the most traditional Marsala wines, and is at the vanguard of a new era in appreciation for this ancient and unique wine.

Lambrusco is the name of both a red wine grape varietal family and an Italian wine made principally from that variety. The grapes and the wine originate from four zones in Emilia-Romagna and one in Lombardy, principally around the central provinces of

Modena, Parma, Reggio nell’Emilia, and Mantua. The grape has a long winemaking history with archaeo-logical evidence indicating that the Etruscans culti-vated the vine.

The gastronomic creations of the Emilia-Romagna region are world-renowned—this is the home of Parmigiano-Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, and Modena’s Balsamic vinegar—while the wines have been less appreciated by the fine wine trade; however, this is changing rapidly, especially in the US. Producers have shifted to a focus on quality, and restaurants have responded by featuring the new styles of Lambrusco. The most revered versions reflect techniques his-torically used by local farmers, and forward thinking producers are producing single variety and even “ancestral” versions of Lambrusco. Albinea Canali, a winery founded in the 1930s, has lead the renaissance of Lambrusco as regional farmers once knew it.

Frascati is an Italian white wine from the region of Frascati, located about 15 miles southeast of Rome on the hillsides facing Italy’s capital. Archeological discoveries from the ancient town of Tusculum, now called Frascati, demonstrate the cultivation of grapes for wine since the 5th century B.C. it was one of the preferred wines of Ancient Rome, then of the Renaissance Popes, and in many ways made famous by them. The vineyards range from 200 to 1,000 feet in altitude. The soils are well drained and volcanic. The DOC allows for a minimum of 70% Malvasia Bianca di Candia and/or Trebbiano Toscano, a 30% maximum of Greco and/or Malvasia del Lazio and a maximum of 10% other white grapes. In the 1980s and 1990s Frascati became popular around the world and local producers often sacrificed typicity and quality to satisfy demand. Today, Frascati faces dual challenges of fierce international competition and land values more favorable to urbanization than viticulture. Even with these challenges there are still a few producers who are working to make world class wines that will bring prestige and elevate the region as a whole; the region’s most historic and still leading producer, Fontana Candida, leads the way with outreach to sup-port local grape growers and the development of its Luna Mater Frascati Riserva, riffing on tradition with contemporary style.

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WHAT'S OLD IS NEW

RESCUE ME!While not necessarily Lazarus wines, professors Benedetta Poretti from Marsala, Italy; Vanni Lusetti from Reggio Emilia, Italy; Mauro Merz from Frascati, Italy; and Salvatore Geraci from Messina, Italy will show how they have interpreted new approaches, style and attitude to wines with divergent and lengthy histories. Local chefs will also present out-of-the box pair-ings that riff on tradition but rave on innovation.

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10 The Cru Artisan College Study Guide

Faro is an Italian wine DOC from the extreme eastern corner of Sicily. Its geo-graphical center is the city of Messina, the third city of Sicily and the administrative center of the eponymous province. Messina received official DOC status for its wines in December 1976, a decade after most of Italy’s classic wines were recognized.

Faro di Messina was the name given to the channel which separates Sicily from Calabria, on the southern Italian mainland, today known as the Strait of Messina. Although the obvious meaning of Faro is “lighthouse,” the significance of any light-house there was soon overshadowed by the importance of the channel itself, as it became a dividing point between the two halves of the Kingdom of Sicily, which then included parts of southern Italy.

Faro wines are exclusively red, and made from a trio of grape varieties very traditional in this part of Sicily. Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio make up the dominant part of any Faro wine blend, sometimes with a dash of Nocera up to the permit-ted limit of 10%. This is the same blend of grape varieties (uvaggio in Italian) grown on the volcanic slopes of Mount Etna, an active volcano, where vineyards are like-wise planted predominantly on mountain-ous terrain: the key difference here is that there are multiple hills rather than a single mountain, and the soil of Faro is decidedly more sandy than lavic. The influence of the strait below helps moderate the tempera-tures in Sicily’s hot climate.

Wine production around Messina has dramatically declined since its peak in the 18th century. Its lowest point came in the 1970s and 1980s when there were just one-tenth the number of vineyard acres there had been 100 years previously. By the 1990s, the Faro DOC was on the verge of oblivion, its death sentence in the form of a law declaring that if there existed fewer than three producers, the denomination would be declared non-existent. Italian wine journalist Luigi Veronelli took note, and when a young Messina native and architect named Salvatore Geraci penned an essay to bemoan the disappearance of this native tradition, Veronelli called him out on it. He convinced Geraci, who had inherited an estate in the heart of the Faro zone, he must revive his grandfather’s vineyards and save the DOC.

Geraci listened and his success made growers in Faro and on Etna begin taking Nerello Mascalese seriously.

Rome

THE WINES:

Palari Faro

Grape varieties: 60% Nerello Mascalese, 1% Cor’e Palumba, 2% Jacche, 15% Nocera, 20% Nerello Cappuccio, 2% Acitana

Region: Sicily

Vineyards: The grapes are grown in vineyards located in Santo Stefano Briga (Messina), Sicily, Italy, in sandy soil.

Winemaking: After soft pressing and fermenta-tion with native yeasts in temperature controlled stainless steel, the wine is aged in new barrels of Troncais and Allier oak for at least 12 months. The wine is then bottled and allowed to rest, unfiltered, for an additional year before release.

Messina

Giarre

Trecastagni

Milazzo

Reggio diCalabria

Palari Winery

Mt. Etna

T y r r h e n i a nS e a

Stra

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f M

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0 10 miles

FARO DOC

Marsala

Trapani Messina

Mt. Etna

Syracuse

Palermo

MARSALA SUPERIORERISERVA SEMISECCODOC

FARO DOC

SICILY

T y r r h e n i a n S e a

S t r a i t o f S i c i l y0 30 miles

Trapani

Marsala

Petrosino Castelvetrano

Mazzara delVallo

Castellamaredel Golfo

Cantine FlorioWinery

MARSALA SUPERIORERISERVA SEMISECCO

DOC

T y r r h e n i a n S e a

0 15 miles

Targa Riserva Marsala

Grape variety: 100% Grillo

Region: Sicily

Vineyards: Coastal strip of the towns of Marsala, Petrosino and other inland areas of the province of Trapani. Terre rossa soils, low in fertility and rich in silica.

Winemaking: Extraordinarily ripe grapes with a high sugar content are harvested by hand. Fermentation takes place at controlled temperature and the resulting wine is blended with fortified must, cooked must and wine-brandy. Matured at least 7 years in oak barrels.

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The Cru Artisan College Study Guide 11

Luna Mater

Grape varieties: 50% Malvasia Bianca di Candia, 30% Malvasia del Lazio, 10% Bombino, 10% Greco

Region: Lazio

Vineyards: Select hillside vineyards in the DOCG zone in Frascati and Monteporzio Catone (Lazio, Italy). The volcanic soils are loose, porous and rich in minerals.

Winemaking Handpicked grapes are divided into two lots. One is cooled before pressing to maintain aroma. The other is fermented on the skins in small oak barrels to preserve varietal character. A subsequent harvest, a few days later, adds hand de-stemmed whole grapes to the must to enhance aromas and flavors. The wine is aged in bottle in a naturally cool and humid tufaceous rock cellar.

Rome

RomeFRASCATI

SUPERIOREDOCG

LAMBRUSCO DISORBARA DOC

FB Lambrusco di Sorbara

Grape variety: 100% Lambrusco di Sorbara

Region: Emilia-Romagna

Vineyards: Lambrusco di Sorbara grapes are grown in a deep and medium-mixture terrain in vineyards located in Emilia-Romagna, Italy.

Winemaking: Grapes are cultivated in the GDC (Geneva Double Curtain) or Doppia Cortina method. After pressing, the grapes undergo cold maceration for 12 hours to extract some color and enhance the flavors of the Sorbara grapes. Following partial fermentation, the wine undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle, rendering the wine completely dry and leaving a deposit of natural yeast in the bottle.

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EMILIA-ROMAGNA

Florence

Venice

Siena

Verona

BolognaModena

LAMBRUSCODI SORBARA DOC

0 30 miles

Fidenza

Legnago

Guastalla

ComacchioCento

Carpi

Mirandola

Imola

Cesena

Marano

Massa

Parma

Cremona

Padova

Mantova

Reggionell’Emilia

Ravenna

Forlì

Modena

Sassuolo

San Giovanniin Persiceto

CastelfrancoEmilia

Porto Tolle

Rovigo

Ferrara

Bologna

Albinea CanaliWinery

LAMBRUSCODI SORBARA

DOC

0 10 miles

EMILIA-ROMAGNA

Secc

hia

Panaro

LAZIO

MARCHE

TUSCANY

Napoli

L’Aquila

Latina

Viterbo

Grosseto

FRASCATISUPERIORE DOCG

MONTALCINO

Rome

0 30 miles

Ap

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in

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T y r r h e n i a nS e a

Fontana CandidaWinery

FRASCATISUPERIORE DOCG

Rome

FrascatiCiampino

Castel Gandolfo

San Cesareo

Palestrina

Lake Albano

Tiber

0 5 miles

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