Wine in Puglia: Interview with Southern Italian Winemaker Elio Minoia of Valle Dell'Asso Winery
Valle
dell’Asso winery is located in Puglia, Southern Italy, and I'm pretty
sure I drank about half of the winery's white wine production over the
summer of 2009. I lived in Puglia then, and Valle dell’Asso's Galatina
DOC Chardonnay was one of my favorite white wines). I was exceptionally excited to visit the winery and meet the people behind the wines on my last trip to Puglia. The wines, both white and red, are
characterized by ripe fruit flavors thanks to the powerful sun of the
Salento peninsula, and most are down-right easy-going—the type of
unpretentious wine for barbecues or beaching. At the same time, the
reds, like so many of my favorites from Puglia, have an intriguing dark, leathery
side. Valle dell'Asso cultivates natives grapes—negroamaro, primitivo,
aleatico, and malvasia nera di Lecce; newly native
grapes—montepulciano, fiano, and aglianico; and one international
grape—chardonnay, and its wines are distributed in California and NYC.
(Photo: Elio Minoia and Marina Saponari)I visited in November, and, even in the fall, a few locals were enjoying the beach on the Ionian Sea. At the winery, Marina Saponari, head of sales, and winemaker Elio Minoia met me with warm smiles. The winery shares its history with Agricole Vallone, the Pugliese winery famous for producing the Amarone-like Gratacciaia wine. Their first vineyard was planted by Donato Vallone in the town of Cutrofiano in 1820, and the vineyard is still used today. "Valle dell'Asso bottled its wine for the first time in 1995," said Elio.
Mattie: What are some of the ways that you keep the soil healthy in your vineyards?
Elio: We
have been certified organic since 1996, and organic and dry farming are
meant to create the perfect balance of microelements and colloids in
the soil. Microelements are necessary to preserve the soil in good
health, colloids are useful to preserve water. Because we do not have to
irrigate, our plants tend to avoid the illnesses caused by humidity.
Further, to fight the high temperatures in Puglia we till the soil in a
particular way that helps reduce water evaporation and promote thermal
insulation.
For
anyone who doesn't speak wine science, Elio is saying that he keeps the
healthy organisms in the soil happy, and this makes his plants happy,
viz. healthy microbial activity protects grapevines from disease and
droughts.
M: How large are your vineyards?
Elio: The
winery has 198 acres of vineyards. With more locations, we have more
chances to grow the right fruit. The vineyard rows are planted in the
direction of the wind (which is strong year-round because southern Puglia stands in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea!) so
that air is constantly circulating, which helps to protect the vines
from powdery mildews and parasites. The vines are trained in the cordone speranato style,
so the vines have one thick trunk and the canes are trained along wires
so that they grow parallel to the ground. Without irrigation and with
healthy, strong soil, the grapes are more concentrated.
To
fully appreciate the power of the wind in Puglia, look at its location in the middle
of the sea:
Like the contradictory bright and dark fruit of its wines, Puglia is a land of contrasts, and though the region receives very little rain during the months of May, June, and July, ground water is rarely a problem. The land has a lot of limestone, and one of the largest aqueducts in all of Europe runs beneath it. As a result, the winery practices dry farming.
Elio opened a steel lid in the winery floor, revealing a cement cistern.
Elio: The
first cisterns made of cement were built in 1933. Then, at the end of
the Second World War, we got rid of all the old wooden casks and
replaced them with cisterns. They are traditional in Puglia because,
considering the high summer temperature, they kept the temperature not
higher than 17°C even without any technical support. The walls of the
cisterns are vitrified with epoxy resin, in this way when the cistern is
empty it is possible to wash it, to sanitize and dry. The resin is able
to have smooth faces to avoid porosity and to better guarantee hygiene.
As
I mentioned, limestone is the dominant component of Puglia's geology.
Farmers have stored olive oil in massive cisterns carved out of the
ground for hundreds and many even thousands of years (Puglia produces
roughly 40% of all the olive oil in Italy). Cement is rapidly becoming a popular method
of aging wine around the world.
Elio
and Marina led me into an intimate tasting room with hundreds of owls
in it. Fortunately, they weren't taxadermied—they were toys! Both the
winery and the town of Galatina use the owl as a symbol. Don Gino
collects these owls, often receiving them as gifts from all over the
world. I particularly liked the set of nesting owls.
M: How would you describe the style of your wine?
Elio: The wine that we produce must represent the terroir, and it must be clean and as natural as possible. We do not use barrique (note: barrique is the French word for barrel, and in Italy the word is used to distinguish small barrels from botti,
which are the absolutely massive Italian wine barrels. Barriques are
what we call regular ol' oak barrels), we only use botti, and most of
our wines see stainless steel or cement. In total quantity, we produce
about a half million bottles of wine a year, and about 50% of that wine
is sold as vino sfuso (bulk wine). Our vino sfuso is sold in the UK and all over Europe.
We
sat down and Marina asked me what I wanted to taste. Valle dell'Asso
makes a fifteen unique wines, four of which are whites, two rosés, and
two dessert wines. I really enjoyed the 2010 Galatina Rosé,
which is made using the Saignée method. Negroamaro grapes are macerated
for about 10 hours, then about 10% is remove, which becomes the
Galatina Rosé. The nose was very fresh with strawberry and burnt caramel
notes. It had a strong acidic structure and medium, soft tannins. I
also liked the 2008 Organic Negroamaro, which was well balanced with dark plum and blackberry fruit. The 2006 Piromáfo was the real knock out, showing complexity, expressiveness, and a highly unique fire-like intensity. The word piromáfo is used to describe the brilliant red top soil around the town of Galatina (terra rossa).
Like the locals, it has Greek roots, and the word means "fire fighter."
Elio reminded me that a huge percentage of the grape varieties grown in
Italy were first grown in Puglia. Puglia was one of the first areas in
Italy to be civilized, thanks to the Greeks.
I
liked most of the wines I tried, but I somewhat disappointed by the
2010 Galatina Bianco—the same wine that I'd drank so much of when
living in Lecce. Back then, I was drinking the 2008 vintage. The 2010
vintage still had some of those delicious tropical fruit aromas and
flavors that I remembered, but they weren't as vibrant as the 2008 vintage, and 2010 was likely a cooler year. I'll have to return to
taste the 2011!
Elio
and Marina walked us out, and, as I was getting into my car I notice
this silhouette of a bottle of wine carved into a block of stone. I
think it serves as a perfect metaphor for what Valle dell'Asso is doing:
they are growing grapes out of limestone, aging wine in cement cisterns
carved out of the ground, respecting the soil and the environment, and
producing fine wine in a highly challenging environment. I can picture
Elio standing among his vines, picking up a stone, and wringing wine
from it!
Valle dell'Asso welcomes visitors to taste their wines, and, like so many of the amazing wineries in Puglia, they offer free tasting. Take advantage of it! Here are the wine-tasting details:
Open for Wine Tasting: Mon-Fri and Saturday morning
Summer Hours: 8am-1pm and 4pm-7pm
Winter Hours: 8am-1pm and 3pm-6pm
Price with food: 5 euros
Wine Tasting Only: Free
The winery can prepare complete meals and tastings for large groups.
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