In a couple weeks
I'll be hosting our Italian bloggers group to discuss the food, wine
and travel to the region of Lombardy, aka Lombardia, in Italy. Due
to the redesign of my site and taking a look at what I've focused on
in this region, I've noticed that most of it has been on the whites of
the region. There are many reds though as well, in particular from the
Valtellina - the northern part of Lombardy, that need to be talked
about. I'll be chatting more about chiavennasca in a couple weeks,
but today we're discussing sforzato di valtellina, one of the 5 DOCG's
of the Lombardia region.
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| Wine region of Valtellina. Looks terrible doesn't it? By Craig Drollett |
Passito wines
There are many
wines produced throughout Italy that are passito wines, produced with
dried grapes, that goes through the appassimento process, which is the
actual process of drying out grapes before fermentation. Probably
one of the most popular passito wines is Amarone della Valpolicella,
but there is also moscato di scanzo from Lombardy, Fior d'Arancio
from the Veneto, Colli Orientatli del Picolit from Friuli,
Schiacchetra from Liguria and the list goes on. Why do wineries dry
out grapes? It concentrates the sugars in the grapes and produces
wines that are rich, and dense with high alcohol and lots of
complexities.
Sforzato di Valtellina
Sforzato di
Valtellina, aka sfursat di Valtellina, is a wine made primarily of
the chiavennasca grape. If you're familiar with nebbiolo from the
Piedmont region, this is the same grape, it's just known as
chiavennasca in Lombardy. The chiavennasca grapes are typically
dried out on straw mats or racks where they lose 40% of their weight,
concentrating the sugars for close to 4 months. The DOCG laws for
Sforzato di Valtellina require that the wine ages 20 months in
barrels and bottles before release to the public.
What does sforzato
mean?
It translates to force, which is what the winemakers are doing
by allowing the grapes to continue to mature on the vine past harvest
prior to picking so the sugars are at higher level that results in
wines higher in alcohol. Sforzato will typically produce wines at
about 14% alcohol.
What does sforzato di valtellina taste like?
They are full-bodied as you can imagine with a
profile of dried fruits, spices, plums, raisins and characteristics
that will continue to evolve in the glass and your mouth. Don't you
love wines of these complexities?
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| Sforzato di Valtellina with pizzoccheri by Paolo Perini |
Have you had
sforzato or experienced any passito wines?
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