Wood works?

06 September 2001 by
Wood works?

A quick ride through the hills of Umbria and southern Tuscany reminds Jim Budd that there is plenty of food and wine for thought.

Cypress trees, fields of corn, and vine-clad hills topped with ancient villages make southern Tuscany and Umbria a charming area to visit. Add the blend of old wine traditions with some modern innovations, and you get plenty of good wines to drink at a variety of prices.

In southern Tuscany, especially in Montepulciano and Montalcino, Sangiovese is undoubtedly the leading grape and is the source of Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Brunello di Montalcino, two of Italy's most famous wines. Other local red varieties, such as Caniolo and Colorino, play a supporting role in some wines, while international varieties, in particular Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, are used in IGT (indicazione geografica tipica) wines. (IGT is the Italian equivalent of France's vins de pays.)

Lengthy ageing in wood remains controversial. The tradition has been for the top red wines, especially Brunello, to spend at least two years in large Slovenian oak casks. The problem is that the wine needs to have substantial concentration to begin with if it is to survive this treatment; otherwise, these casks act as extremely efficient fruit strippers. After long ageing, the wine ends up desiccated and tasting much older than its vintage date would suggest.

The top Brunello di Montalcino, however, does survive this treatment, as a fascinating vertical tasting of Il Poggione (Enotria: 020 8961 4411) wines demonstrated. Tasting a range of vintages from as far back as 1979 showed that the long wood maturation imparts its own complexity. Until 1986, Brunello wines from Il Poggione spent four years in wood; this has now been reduced to three, but the owners are determined to remain with the large casks and not to have to resort to putting their Brunello in barriques.

Enotria has the 1995 Brunello di Montalcino priced at £88.62 for six, the 1995 Brunello di Montalcino Riserva for £133.86 for six, and the cheaper 1999 Rosso di Montalcino at £45.54 for six. Other Brunello producers who continue to use long ageing in large casks include the aristocratic Biondi Santi estate (Alivini: 020 8880 2525).

The lower-denomination wines, Rosso di Montepulciano and Rosso di Montalcino, are bottled much earlier and can offer delicious easy drinking. Good examples from Montepulciano include those from Avignonesi (Eurowines: 020 8747 2100), Fattoria del Cerro (Ehrmanns: 020 7418 1800) and Tre Rose (Alivini), while from Montalcino those from Argiano (Liberty Wines: 020 7720 5350) and Donatella Cinelli (Enotria) are worth trying.

The situation in Umbria, which adjoins southernTuscany, is different. Not only is Umbria more mountainous, it also has a different range of varieties, with a greater use of international ones. The Lungarotti family (Alivini), long the leaders in Umbria, are now being challenged by other producers. In Montefalco, young Marco Caprai at Arnaldo Caprai (John Armit Wines: 020 7727 6846) has really made Italy wake up to the potential of the robust and highly tannic local variety, Sagrantino di Montefalco. Caprai's reds start with the 1999 Montefalco Rosso at £72.60 and rise to the pure Sagrantino di Montefalco "25" anni 1997 at £152.40 for six.

Elsewhere, there are strings of estates, such as La Palazzola (Liberty Wines) and Sportoletti (Lea & Sandeman: 020 7244 0522), which use the dynamic Riccardo Cotarella as their consultant. Falesco (John Armit Wines) is Cotarella's own estate, where he is producing a remarkable range of wines, both reds and whites, at very reasonable prices. "It is not necessarily much more expensive to make good wine," Cotarella says. "You can keep customers' attention by quality and value." His delicious Vitiano 2000, an equal blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese, is £58.80.

Here, lunch or dinner without pasta is not a proper meal. Every village has its own particular way of making pasta - using different types of flour, etc - and its accompanying sauce. The most popular is still the meat or tomato sauce, but there is an almost infinite range.

Another common dish in the region is chilled tomato and bread soup, which usually includes garlic, chilli and olive oil. Some versions are solid, with the consistency of bread and butter pudding. Others use a lower ratio of bread to liquid, and are more refreshing in the summer.

One of the lighter red wines is best with these, and is usually appropriate for the various antipasti, while the weightier reds are saved for the meat course. Many producers also make a vin santo by drying the grapes for three to six months before fermentation, followed by long ageing in 50-litre barrels. They can be served with desserts or almond biscotti, but the best, such as those from Avignonesi (Eurowines), should be sipped by themselves at the end of a meal.

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