Debunking Italian Wine Myths - Part III
By Mary Ewing-Mulligan and Ed McCarthy
February 7, 2011
Sometimes ideas or stories take on lives of their own, and innocent Italian-wine lovers become unwitting believers in what are the wine equivalent of urban legends. Here are some examples of those myths — and the real story, to set you straight.
Spumante is sweet
The word spumante means "sparkling" — just that. Because Asti Spumante (the sweet, sparkling wine of Asti) is so famous, however, wineries in California and Italy have borrowed the term spumante for sweet bubblies that imitate Asti, and millions of people now think that the word applies only to sweet, sparkling wines. The connotation of sweetness is so strong, in fact, that Italy's best dry sparkling wines, such as Franciacorta, don't use the word spumante. And you rarely see the word even on bottles of Asti these days, because producers of this classic want to distance themselves from their imitators.
Soave and Valpolicella are low-quality wines
Soave, a white wine, and Valpolicella, a red wine — along with their red companion wine from the Verona area, Bardolino — have received a bad rep in the U.S. and elsewhere. Not that it wasn't somewhat deserved: Many bottles of these wines are mass-produced, unexciting stuff. But all three of these wines can be delightful, if you seek out a good producer, and you are willing to pay a few dollars more than normal. Try a Gini or Pieropan Soave, for example, an Allegrini Valpolicella, or a Guerrieri-Rizzardi Bardolino, and you discover that these wines have character and charm in the hands of a quality-conscious producer.
Montepulciano d'Abruzzo and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano are made from the same grape
The confusion is understandable, but these two wines are definitely different wines made from different grape varieties. Vino Nobile is a dry red wine made primarily from the Prugnolo Gentile variety (a type of Sangiovese) around the town of Montepulciano in southeastern Tuscany. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo is also a dry red wine, but made mainly from the Montepulciano variety, which grows in the region of Abruzzo on the Adriatic coast, southeast of Tuscany. The Montepulciano variety is believed to be native to the Abruzzo region, and it has no connection to Sangiovese or to the town of Montepulciano in Tuscany.
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