On Topic... May 27, 2009 WINES OF THE TIMES An Italian Mystery, Explained By ERIC ASIMOV THE world is full of mystifying wines, but few are as familiar yet as little-known as Valpolicella. Where does Valpolicella come from? Well, that we can answer: the Veneto region of northeastern Italy. And we know it is red. What grapes are used? How is it made? Is it any good? For those questions, the answers I.m afraid are pretty murky. Back when I was a child . and despite what people tell me, I am no longer young . Valpolicella meant the cartoon Italian accent of countless radio commercials for a mass-produced wine that achieved popularity through the undeniable appeal of its mellifluous name. The generations who followed, growing up in the .80s or .90s, knew Valpolicella mostly through hearing it disparaged as a thin, insipid wine. Fact is, it was insipid most of the time. Commercial producers had taken the easy way, abandoning difficult-to-farm hillsides for vineyards on the flats, where high yields of dilute grapes were easy. Meanwhile, as people began to prefer bigger, richer red wines like Valpolicella.s brawnier sibling, Amarone, producers began to reserve their best grapes and vineyards for more profitable Amarone production. Still, the winemaking renaissance that has occurred throughout Italy, including Soave, the Veneto.s white-wine counterpart to Valpolicella, has also come to Valpolicella. Grapes from the original Valpolicella zone are designated Valpolicella Classico, while those that have a higher level of alcohol and that receive an additional year of aging are designated Superiore. With new seriousness of purpose, many producers have rededicated themselves to Valpolicella. It has not replaced Amarone at the top of most winemakers. production charts, not even close. But it is clear today that many Valpolicellas are delicious and wonderful values, though all over the map stylistically, as the wine panel found in a recent tasting of 25 bottles. For the tasting Florence Fabricant and I were joined by Charles Scicolone, the consulting wine director for Enoteca on Court and Marco Polo restaurant, in Brooklyn, and Gabrio Tosti di Valminuta, proprietor of De-Vino, a largely Italian wine shop on the Lower East Side. Let.s start with the murkiness. Valpolicella is a blended wine. The corvina grape must make up to 40 to 70 percent of the mix, with rondinella 20 to 40 percent and molinara 5 to 25 percent. Up to 15 percent of the blend can include barbera, sangiovese, negrara or rossignola, while up to 5 percent can come from other red grapes. Got that? Clearly winemakers have a lot of room for variation, but that.s only the beginning. As consumer tastes changed, Valpolicella producers began to use techniques of concentrating and darkening the wines. Some added semi-dried grapes that might have been used for Amarone. Others took Valpolicella and refermented it with the skins and sediment of the semi-dried grapes used for Amarone. The results were bigger, richer wines, somewhere between classic Valpolicellas and Amarones. Many producers call these wines ripasso, or ripassa, which means .passed through again.. They can be quite good. But for our tasting I wanted Valpolicellas made in the more conventional way, partly because I love the texture and delicacy of a well-made Valpolicella. We had only one problem. Producers are under no obligation to label their wines ripasso, or to indicate what methods they.ve used to make the wines. Without a lot of research, it is hard to know what you.re getting. And even then, some producers vary their methods from year to year, depending on the vintage. Confusing? .That.s Italy!. Gabrio chortled. Fair enough. The best traditional Valpolicellas are Italy, too, delicate in texture, with aromas and flavors of cherries, flowers and earth and a lively acidity that practically demands food with the wine. Our No. 1 bottle, the 2007 Classico from Vaona, virtually pulsed with bright, vibrant cherry flavors and floral aromas. It typified what I was looking for in a classically styled Valpolicella, with a structure that comes from acidity rather than oak and a delicacy that, with the wine lightly chilled, might go well with seafood. Best of all, it was just $16. Still, the Vaona wasn.t our best value. Our No. 2 bottle, the 2006 Tommasi Valpolicella Classico Superiore from the Rafaèvineyard, which had pronounced floral aromas floating above the cherry flavors, was our best value at just $12. But it could just as easily been our No. 3 bottle, the 2006 Zenato Classico Superiore at $12, or the 2007 Bolla at just $9. Incidentally, the Bolla was one of those mass-produced Valpolicellas with the radio commercials decades ago. Nonetheless, it.s a highly satisfying cheap bottle . no complaints. The myriad bottles we tried did not vary much by flavor. The Valpolicellas consistently offer floral aromas and flavors of tart cherry and occasionally chocolate, turning refreshingly bitter as you swallow. Some are a bit herbal, and others spicy. But the more noticeable differences in the wines were their texture and density as well as their focus . that is, in the better wines the flavors are more precise and sharply defined. For experiment.s sake, our tasting coordinator, Bernard Kirsch, included the two best-known and most venerated names in Valpolicella, Quintarelli and Dal Forno. I.ve had the Quintarelli before. It.s a wine unlike any other Valpolicella, with lightness, complexity and intensity, and it can age for years. Unfortunately, our bottle, a 1998 that Bernie found for $90, was hopelessly oxidized. The Dal Forno, a 2002 that cost $97, had a different problem. It was overwhelmed . I might say strangled . by the aroma and flavor of the new oak barrels used to age the wine. I would not hesitate to invest in a Quintarelli for a special occasion. I.ve had plenty of very good ripasso-style Valpolicellas . producers like Marion, Allegrini.s Palazzo della Torre and Masi Campofiorin come to mind. Perhaps we even had some lurking in our tasting. But more and more I.ve been looking for the real, unaugmented thing. Any of our top 10 wines would make me happy, and for the most part you can.t beat the prices. jle: regretably, the new format for the wines tasted sux... The New York Times | Dining | February 18, 2009 Tasting Report: Many Valpolicellas are delicious and wonderful values, though all over the map stylistically, as the wine panel found in a recent tasting of 25 bottles. 1. Vaona 2. Tommasi **Best Value** 3. Zenato 4. Bolla 5. Stefano Accordini 6. Allegrini 7. Valentina Cubi 8. Caâ la Bionda 9. Masi 10. Brigaldara For more information about these wines and to read the whole article, go to: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/27/dining/reviews/27wine.html May 27, 2009 PAIRINGS Arctic Char With Prosciutto and Sage By FLORENCE FABRICANT Charles Scicolone, a wine consultant who was on our tasting panel, kept whetting our appetites by suggesting .fish from Lago di Garda. with the brighter, less assuming Valpolicellas. I had already been thinking of fish with the wines but instead of fish from Lake Garda, in the Veneto region of Italy, my idea was Arctic char in a preparation loosely inspired by saltimbocca, using prosciutto and sage. The meatiness of the fish, enhanced by the cured ham . and given herbal notes from the sage and acidity from onions splashed with vinegar . plays in tune with the wines we tasted. The lighter, fairly classic Valpolicellas would be best, but even the earthier, more assertive examples make good partners. The recipe will work with a whole fish that has been boned and butterflied, or two fillets. FLORENCE FABRICANT -- ------------------------------ * Dr. James Ellingson, jellings(a)me.umn.edu * * University of Minnesota, mobile : 651/645-0753 * * Great Lakes Brewing News, 1569 Laurel Ave., St. Paul, MN 55104 *