Often, in common speech, we run the risk of confusing wines and grape varieties and defining a wine not by its territory of origin, but simply by the grape variety to which it belongs. Serious mistake!
It is now a widespread custom even among us to define wines, even those with precise appellations of origin, by the main grape varieties that are at the basis of it. Thus a Barolo or Barbaresco becomes a “Nebbiolo,” a Brunello is a “Sangiovese” a Gevrey Chambertin is a “Pinot Noir,” and so on.
Veronelli’s “rebuke”
I fondly remember a public ear-pulling given to me by Gino Veronelli when, during a lunch at the Noninos’ house in Friuli, I called a wine I was drinking “a very fine Nebbiolo“. He took me back rather harshly. “Wretch, this is not a Nebbiolo, this is Bruno Giacosa’s Barbaresco Santo Stefano.“.
But of such anecdotes I could tell many more. The point of the speech is. “downgrading” in fact a Barolo or Brunello to Nebbiolo or Sangiovese is perhaps a simplification, but one does not do justice to their origins.
Wines defined by grape variety alone are the basic ones
What is more, throughout the world, and in France in particular, the wines defined by the grape variety alone are the basic ones. A Pinot Noir or a Chardonnay in Burgundy is less prestigious and expensive than a Volnay or a Puligny Montrachet, let alone a Grand Cru. We do not, at least for now, arrive at as precise a definition as they do, however Barolo, perhaps with the appropriate MGAs (Additional Geographical Mentions), with difficulty could be called simply “Nebbiolo.” So Chianti Classico with their UGAs (Additional Geographical Units) and Brunello di Montalcino are not just “great beautiful Sangiovese.”
Veronelli was right to chastise me, in public, by the way, and in the presence of Bruno Giacosa himself, whom I did not know at the time and whom I met for the first time on that occasion. I was hurt, of course, but I learned something.
Today there is more transgression, and I don’t think that’s a good thing. Then there is not even a Veronelli to berate certain definitions. He passed away 20 years ago and this piece is also an excuse to remind everyone of him.
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We had already addressed this topic some time ago with Riccardo Viscardi’s editorial Brunello, Nobile, Chianti… are not just Sangiovese – DoctorWine
