Here we come to the third category of wine identified by the author: wine-fruit, that which releases aromas and flavors of fresh fruit.
There is not a person in the world, expert or novice, regular or occasional drinker, who does not deploy a big smile when he or she brings nose and lips closer to a goblet that releases freshness, flowery scents and fruity flavors. The wine-fruit is the archetype dreamed of and pursued since the dawn of oenology, the one that gave intoxication to Noah, the one sung about by so many poets and drunk by so few mortals.
The fact that it has been a chimera for millennia is due to the fact that winemaking and storage techniques allowed the wine to directly express the characteristics of the grapes from which it was made for only a very short period of the year, from racking to the arrival of the first warm weather. And the rapid degradation subsequent prompted winemakers to invent preservation techniques that inevitably mortified precisely the fruitiness, that close and natural (as well as pleasant) connection with the grape variety of origin.
The oenological technique to avoid fruit degradation
The technological advances of the past fifty years have put at our disposal techniques that make it possible to overcome excellently that ancient handicap and offer the market wines-fruits that maintain their fragrance throughout the year and beyond. There would be a lot to indulge in in a competition of excellence, instead Very few prestigious producers measure themselves against this typology and if they do it is predominantly for box-office reasons, to add an easy-to-market wine to the list, destined to procure gold rather than laurels.
Yet there would be no more suitable time than now, at least in Italy, to address wine-fruit production in terms of high quality: the generalized focus on native grape varieties, in fact, where else could it offer its best results? What is the point of rediscovering Nero d’Avola and then aging it in barrels to make it look as much like a Bordeaux Cabernet as possible?
It is a sensible operation to try to safeguard our “immense varietal heritage” without then transferring its distinctive characteristics into the wine made from it? The trouble is that, for the moment, that of native grape varieties seems more like a fad (if not a desperate commercial hope) than a long-term strategic choice. Although a few enlightened producers are sowing the seeds well and it is to be hoped that they can chart a new course capable of launching even wine-fruits toward the Olympus of the wine elite.
Article from “RuvidaMente.com,” courtesy of author Stefano Milioni: The 6 Faces of Planet Wine – RuvidaMente by Milioni
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