Non-Langhe Timorasso believers: Scarpa, Cascina Degli Ulivi, Broglia

A number of Langhe producers have procured vineyard land in Colli Tortonesi DOC in order to pursue the possibilities associated with Timorasso wine. But they are not the only "non-native" Piemontese producers seeking to leverage the potential of the Timorasso grape. To date my research has turned up two Gavi (Cascina Degli Ulivi and Broglia) and one Monferrato (Scarpa) producers thus engaged. But while the Langhe producers are taking somewhat similar paths on the journey, the non-Langhians are not similarly uniform in their approaches.

Scarpa

Scarpa, located in Nizza Monferrato, was founded back in the mid-1850s and is best known for quality red wines based on sustainable agriculture, traditional winemaking, and long bottle-aging. As is the case for the Langhe producers, Scarpa makes a 100% Timorasso wine but, unlike the Langhe producers, the grapes are grown in Acqui Terme (Monferrato), outside of the designated Colli Tortonesi DOC growing zone. As a result, the wine (I Bricci) is designated Monferrato Bianco DOC Timorasso.

The Scarpa Timorasso is the manifestation of an abiding fear of the Colli Tortonesi Timorasso producers: If they remain tied to the variety, wines can be made wherever the vine can be grown, resulting in non-characteristic wines and a dilution of the brand value. The producers are protecting against this by moving to designate Timorasso wines from Colli Tortonesi grapes as "Derthona", the ancient Roman name for the region. The name Derthona is trademarked by Massa but he has encouraged its free use for wines made from locally grown grapes. The name is now under consideration by the Ministry of Agriculture as an official designation.

Cascina Degli Ulivi

Cascina Degli Ulivi is a biodynamic farm operating in the Novi Ligure area of Gavi. Its noted late owner Steffano Bellotti was largely responsible for the "legitimization of biodynamic viticulture ... since the early 1980s." His polyculture approach to farming led to most of his wines being declassified to Vinos de Tavola.

The estate's Vino Bianco A Demûa is made from a field blend (Filagnotti Vineyard) of Timorasso, Verdea, Bosco, Riesling, and Chasselas. The grapes are macerated on their skins in botti for 9 months and, after racking, the wine is aged on its lees for another two months. The percentage of Timorasso grapes in the blend is unknown but, in any case, this is non-Derthona Timorasso.

Broglia

Broglia is the Gavi producer whose Timorasso strategy is most closely aligned with the Langhe-producer approach. The company farms 65 ha of vineyards on the 100-acre La Meirana estate.

Broglia purchases its grapes in the commune of Costa Vescovata. They are grown in calcareous soils at elevations ranging between 300 and 350 m on south-facing slopes. The vines are pruned Guyot. The wines are aged for 18 months on their lees in small steel tanks.

The 2018 version of their Derthona is the most balanced, and the most approachable, Timorasso that I have tasted to date.

On the nose, herbs, spice, sweet fruit, waxiness, stony minerality, lees, mint, and salinity.

I did not get the initial rush of acidity on the palate as has been the case with the other young Timorasso's that I have tasted to date. Rather, the acidity was well integrated into the overall schema of the wine. Medium weight, rich, lime, umami, green herbs, and salinity. Enervating of the salivary glands. Robust. Great end-to-end consistency. Persistent. Long, saline finish.

The wine did not fall-off on the second day. It works equally well as a cocktail wine or a food wine. On the second day  paired it with a plant-based burger; and it gave no quarter. Buy this wine.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The Timorasso grape variety: Characteristics, history, and growing environment

If Nebbiolo stalwarts such as Vietti, Roagna, Borgogno, and La Spinetta are procuring vineyards outside of their core areas, to make a white wine from a recently re-discovered grape variety, then something must be afoot. And what is afoot, according to Kerin O' Keefe (one of today's leading Italian wine experts) is "one of the most exciting wines coming out of Italy right now" which "boasts more depth, body and complexity than many Italian whites." Berry Bros and Rudd, a historical UK wine retailer, tags the wine as "one of the most exciting autochthonous grape varieties to surface in recent years." These, and many other such laudatory comments, have been directed at wine made from the Timorasso variety. In this post I examine the underlying grape variety.

Characteristics
"Timorasso is a native grape variety of the province of Alessandria, with a quality white-berried grape, grown essentially in the Curone, Grue, Ossona, and Val Borbera valleys, in an area where the vine finds a valid 'habitat' thanks to the soil, sunshine and the position sheltered from the winds" (Consorzio).

According to stradacollitortonesi.com, the Timorasso variety is a part of the ampelographic heritage of Liguria, Piemonte, Lombardia, and Emilia Romagna and is assumed to have originated somewhere between Liguria and Piemonte. The characteristics of the variety are shown in the chart below.

D'Agata identifies a "first degree parentage relationship between Lambruschetto and Timorasso while the Lambruscos from Emilia-Romagna were genetically distant."

Cultivation Challenges

Cultivation of the variety is challenging and has partly been responsible for it going from one of the most planted white varieties in Piemonte to being convincingly supplanted by Cortese in Alessandria. Elisa Semino (quoted in Civita del bere): "... difficult to follow in the vineyard, because it has thick foliage and the shoots must be well-managed: they must be sorted in the row when they are still young so as not to break them. It has good production but requires green pruning to rebalance the right amount of branches/vine."

In a conversation I had with Marco Volpi of Cantine Volpi, he mentioned that the variety had experienced a steady decline over the preceding century due to (i) the amount of work required in the vineyard, (ii) its susceptibility to illness, and (iii) its relatively low yield. For the best results, he said,  the grape has to be harvested at optimal ripeness but care has to be exercised in this pursuit as it is susceptible to sunburn. Leaves have to be removed to provide access to sunlight but should not be the leaves that provide direct shade from the sun. 

In response to a question regarding the pros and cons of Timorasso, Gian Paolo Repetto (Vigneti Repetto) said that the only pro was the possibility of producing a great wine. That has to be balanced against a number of negatives:

• It is a difficult variety to grow
• Material sticks to the equipment during pruning and have to be constantly cleaned off
• Double and triple buds at bud break; these have to be cleaned out manually
• The short distance between buds are a disease risk
• Sunburn is an ever-present risk.

A grower with both Timorasso and Cortese in his/her vineyard will put three times more work in the vineyard for the former. Growers deserted Timorasso in the past because the market did not reward them for the effort expended. 

Climate Change

According to Roberto Semino (La Vecchia Posta), "To respond to climate change, we are starting with soil management, with come cover crops between the rows, part of the gradual lightening of the soil to let the few rains penetrate."

History

According to villalaskovia.pl, Pier de Crescenza, author of the first agricultural encyclopedia, included an ampelographic description of Timorasso in his 14th century volume.  Subsequent ampelographers, including De Maria and Leardi (1875) and Di Rovasenda (1877), documented Timorasso as a noble variety (Ian D'Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the variety was a key component in Torbolino of Tortona, a yeasty sweet wine which was bottled in mid-fermentation and was noted for its cloudiness, and "unfortunate taste and quality." Almost 30,000 quintals of this wine was sent to Switzerland and Germany, with much of it reformatted and sent back into Italy for sale under a number of guises.

The grape was on the verge of extinction in the 1980s when Walter Massa, of Vigneti Massa, encountered a few vines in his vineyard and began experimenting with them. He was so pleased with the initial results that he begun searching out vines in neighboring vineyards. As time went by, neighboring producers noted his success and began producing the wines. 

Growing Environment

In the past, the vineyards were widespread in the valleys previously mentioned, valleys which are "notoriously wild and difficult for many agricultural crops." The Timorasso vine prefers poor and marginal soils with especially limited water reserves. The current Timorasso growing environment is illustrated in the chart below.

The average vineyard size in the chart above is based on a total of 43.2 ha spread over 18 vineyards. It should be noted that Volpe (10 ha) and La Spinetta (5 ha) represent almost 1/3 of the total hectares. If their numbers are removed from the population, the average vineyard size declines to 1.76 ha.

The information on vineyards provided in the chart above was developed from an 85-record database of Timorasso producers which I have been constructing over the past few months. Going forward I will be growing the database with new entries as well as fleshing out the areas where things are currently skinny.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

In pursuit of that white wine to complement my red: Roagna Derthona Montemarzino Timorasso 2017

Franco Ziliani (Italian blogger and wine critic) has proposed a number of factors that are driving named Langhe producers towards Timorasso wines:

• They are impressed by the work of Massa and his disciples
• They understand the greatness of Timorasso
• They want to expand the the range of their reds with an important white
• Vineyards are a bargain in Colli Tortonesi when compared to the sky-high costs in Barolo and its surrounds.

In the case of Roagna, we can add another factor: according to the literature, Luca came upon an inheritance of one ha of Timorasso vines. 

The chart below shows the sources of grapes for the Langhe producers alongside their more "indigenous" compatriots.

I will cover the Roagna Timorasso offering in this post.

According to Benchmark Wine Group:

When the Barbaresco region was officially classified in 1890, there were only a handful of families making wine ... and the Roagna family was one of them. The family-owned Piemontese producer is known for its Barbaresco Crichët Pajé cuvee, ... The estate also releases a Barbaresco Riserva, numerous single-vineyard Barbaresco bottlings, a Barolo from the Pira Vineyard, a Dolcetto d'Alba, and a Barbera d'Alba. Throughout their long history in the region, the estate has gradually acquired around 30 acres of vines in Barbaresco cru vineyards as well as 17 acres in Barolo. They are also known for their partnership bottlings with owners of other prestigious vineyards throughout Italy. The wines are made with little intervention to stay true to how wines were made when the winery first began operating.

Roagna farms 1 ha of Timorasso vines at 400 m in Montemarzino where the soils are mainly limestone-clay and rocks with a high level of active limestone. The 35-year-old vines are farmed according to organic principles. The grapes are hand-harvested and fermented with natural yeasts in large French oak casks. The wine is subsequently aged for 2 years in a large French oak cask. The initial vintage of this wine was 2014.

The 2017 edition of this wine is a powerhouse.

Pale yellow in color with a slight cloudiness. Initially, herbs and pink rose water on the nose with black pepper and sweet fruit lurking in the shadows. Complex and layered, pulling your nose deeper into the glass as you seek more extensive aroma interaction. Gum arabic and green mango close out the initial observations.

A wall of acid at the first go round on the palate, giving way to lingering green mango flavor and a mineral sensation. Great weight. Almost austere. Juicier with residence. Acidity retreats to reveal a savoriness and salinity with a bitter finish. 

This wine will continue to reward the patient drinker.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

The Geology of Timorasso's Colli Tortonesi DOC

The most recent activity in European mountain-formation began with the initial compression caused by subduction of the European plate under the African plate in the Jurassic period. Collision between the African and Eurasian plates resulted in increased deformation of Tethyian Sea deposits. The orogeny "produced intense metamorphism of preexisting rocks, crumpling of rock strata, and uplift accompanied by both normal and thrust faulting." Remnants of the Tethys Sea remain as the Mediterranean, Black, Caspian, and Aral Seas. The plate movement resulted in the Italian peninsula being driven northward and compressed into Europe.

At the "conclusion" of the Alpine orogeny, the area that is now Colli Tortonesi did not exist in its current form; rather, it was the eastern portion of a basin that rested beneath a remnant of the Tethys Sea -- the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) -- separated from another wedge-top basin -- the Epiligurian Succession -- by a tectonic fault called the Villalvernia-Varzi (VV) Line. Colli Tortonesi is roughly positioned on the sketch map below. I discuss the basement, the VV fault, and the successions in the material following. 

The Colli Tortonesi Basement

In the Oligocene - Miocene, Ligurian Units, comprised of fragments of the Ligurian-Piedmony Ocean basin and the transition zone to the Adria continental margin, was carted onto the more external domains corresponding to the continental margin of Adria (Tuscan-Umbrian domain). The resulting structure is illustrated in the chart below.

The figure shows the Villavernia-Vernia Line, a prominent feature throughout the entire basement profile. As shown in the figure, VVL separates the TPB from the Epiligurian Units.

Villalvernia-Varzi Line

The characteristics of the line are illustrated in the chart below.

Tertiary Piedmont Basin

As shown in the chart above, the TPB is located to the south of the VV Line.

Beginning in the late Eocene, the Tertiary Piedmont Basin (TPB) developed within the Epimesoalpine  Basin and "sealed the meso-Alpine deformations caused by various tectonic units ranging from the Ligurian Alps (Voltri Group, Brianconnais) to the Northern Apennines (Ligurian Units)." The TPB is divided into three sectors -- western (Langhe). central, and eastern (Borbera-Grue) -- by the Celle-Sandia and Sestria-Voltaggio fault lines. The sedimentary succession, and underlying basement rocks, are present in all three sectors, as shown in A below.

A - Deposits in the basin (Source: The Tertiary Piedmont
Basin, Mufti, et al.); B - Age ranges in the Stages of the Miocene
 (Source: Wikipedia); C - Composition and depths of Oligocene
and Miocene deposits (Source: Mufti, et al)

The TPB sedimentary succession began in the mid-Oligocene and continued through the Miocene. A (above) shows the population of sedimentations by geographic era while C shows the types and extent of sedimentation, exclusive of the Messinian period. The deposits through the Tortonian are predominantly terrigenous in nature -- that is, originating from land -- and are primarily sandstones and mudstones. At its deepest points the succession records a thickness of 6000 m (Mutti, et al.).

The Borbera Valley succession, the area of import for our purposes, is characterized by the sedimentary succession beginning with the Val Borbera conglomerates -- a 2500-m-thick layer of continental-to-marine conglomerates from the Lower Oligocene. In the Costa Merlassino area, Sandstone of Ranzano and Marls of Monte Piano are interposed between the Val Borbera Conglomerates and the Antola Unit. The Middle-Borbera-Valley succession is illustrated in the chart below.

The eastern (Borbera-Grue) sector:

• Exposes the lowermost part of the sedimentary succession of the TPB (upper Eocene)
• Experienced, during the Oligocene and Miocene, a major phase of subsidence, leading to the deposition of relatively deep-water turbidites
• After the Burdigalian, and concurrently with a phase of dramatic inversion of the entire basin, experienced a progressive uplift expressed by a general shallowing upward of the depositional profile.

External Ligurian Units and Epiligurian Unit

Epiligurian Units are found in the wedge-top basin to the north of the VV Line and describes the deposits into that basin between the Middle Eocene and Middle Miocene. The succession is illustrated graphically below.

Quaternary Succession

Quaternary deposits are 2.5 million years old and younger. All of the Quaternary deposits found in the region are located along the valley floors, indicating river-driven migration.

Quaternary soils in Colli Tortonesi
(Underlying map from Vietti. Used with permission)

Conclusion

The chart immediately below shows the distribution of rocks in the areas to the north and south of the Villalvernia - Varzi Line, inclusive. The chart indicates four distinct tectonic periods on the TPB-side of the line and "relative" calm in the area above. 

This chart summarizes the successions in the VVZ area and provides detailed descriptions of each rock formation encountered.

Source: https://www.unito.it/sites/default/files/temi_geologo_ii_2015_allegato1.pdf

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Historic Barolo producer Vietti introduces a Timorasso wine

In a Levi Dalton podcast following the announcement of the sale of Vietti to the Krause family, Luca Currado posited the arrangement as a partnership rather than a sale, saying that it provided the opportunity for the Vietti and Krause families to pursue other projects together in the future. The Vietti Derthona Timorasso lends credence to Luca's assertion.

Antonio Galloni has described the Castiglione-Falletto-based producer Vietti as "one of Italy's most historic wineries," credited with (i) being one of the first bottlers of single-vineyard Barolos and (ii) having revived the moribund Arneis variety in the 1960s. According to Antonio:

Winemaker Luca Currado, his brother-in-law Mario Cordero, along with their families and tightly knit staff, have taken the early groundbreaking work of Alfredo and Luciana Currado and built upon those successes, reaching an unprecedented level of consistency and quality across the entire range. 

My first encounter with Luca and Elena Currado was at the Galloni Vietti Rocche di Castiglione Retrospective on May 10, 2016, where I had the honor of sitting next to Luca. I found him to be warm, personable, knowledgeable, and committed to his craft. My next encounter with the family was a visit to the estate in June of the same year as a part of the launch of Suzanne Hoffman's Labor of Love. Elena led our group on that tour and tasting.

With Luca and Elena at Galloni Vietti
Retrospective

Elena Currado and Suzanne Hoffman
on our visit to Vietti 

Vietti stands among the big guns who have introduced a Timorasso wine to the market. Luca has described Timorasso wines as being akin to an Hermitage Blanc, and, given its acidity, maybe even a Chenin Blanc (Kevin Day, Openingabottle.com). It was this characteristic, and the future outlook for the variety on the world stage, that drove Vietti to pursue production of the wine.

Vietti secures grapes for this wine from three vineyards in Monleale (as shown in the chart below).

The Scalda Pulce vineyard is also the source of grapes for the Borgogno wine while Bosco Grosso is one of the grape sources for the Massa Piccolo Derthona.

The first commercially available vintage of the Vietti wine was 2018 but, according to statements by Elena, they had three experimental vintages in years prior where they sought to determine the type of  vessel that would be best-suited for aging the wine. The characteristics that they sought to balance were oxygen exchange, lees contact, and acidity preservation and they eventually settled on a mix of stainless steel, ceramic, and wooden casks (It should be noted that Massa and his early disciples restricted themselves to the use of stainless steel for both fermentation and aging.). 

The grapes are fermented for 4 weeks in the mix of vessels. There is no malolactic fermentation. Aging runs for 10 months in the same mix of vessels where the wines rest on the fine lees and are subjected to batonnage.

The Vietti Timorasso 2018 lighter in color than the Borgogno and La Colombera wines.

Sweet fruit, blackpepper, woody character, and a hint of tobacco on the nose. A complex melding of these characteristics. 

Bright acidity exciting the salivary glands. Lime. Lighter-bodied than the Borgogno or La Colombera. Stony, mineral, slightly bitter finish. Operates on the upper level of the palate.

The Timorasso "beast" has been somewhat tamed in this wine. The wines that have really knocked my socks off exhibit a little more structure, salinity, and umami.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

Borgogno and La Spinetta: Big-Name entrants on the Timorasso stage

Much as Burgundy has Côte de Nuit and Côte de Beaune for a great red and great white wine, respectively, Piedmont potentially has the opportunity for such a juxtaposition of Barolo/Barbaresco and Colli Tortonesi (Timorasso) if the market acceptance of the latter continues apace. And it seems that some of the big guns from Barolo/Barbaresco are betting on this outcome as they pre-position themselves to take advantage of it. Vietti, Borgogno, Roagna, Pio Cesare, and La Spinetta have all purchased land in the Colli Tortonesi zone and have introduced a Timorasso wine to the market. I examine the offerings of Borgogno and La Spinetta in this post.

La Spinetta's origin dates back to the farming skills and principles established in the 1960s by Giuseppe Rivetti and his wife Lidia. Their four kids took up the mantle and expanded the company into the production of Moscato, initially and then, sequentially, Barbera, Barbaresco, and Barolo. They created Casanova della Spinetta in Tuscany in 2001 and purchased the historic Piemontese sparkling house Contratto in 2011. The purchase of approximately 5 ha of land in Timorasso country in 2018 is in keeping with the company's spirit of pursuit of new challenges.

According to Vinconnect:

The Borgogno name represents over 250 years of history in the Barolo region, its origins dating back to 1761 with the founding of the first winery by Bartolomeo Borgogno. One of the oldest cellars in all of Piedmont, Borgogno wines have enjoyed centuries of acclaim, its Barolo selected as the wine of choice at the official dinner celebration of the Italian Unification in 1861 and again in 1886 honoring the official visit of Nicola II Romanov, Czar of Russia. ...

The Borgogno winery farms approximately 20 hectares (49 acres) of vineyards, located in some of the most prestigious areas in Barolo such as Cannubi, Liste, Fossati and San Pietro ... All of the wines are produced from 100% estate-owned vineyards. In 2008, Giacomo Borgogno & Figli was acquired by the Farinetti family.

Borgogno has purchased 3 ha of land in Colli Tortonesi.

The location of the holdings are illustrated graphically below.

Borgogno is tapped to be fully organic with its 2019 vintage while La Spinetta currently functions as such.

Both of the wines are 100% Timorasso from Colli Tortonesi DOC. The grapes are hand-harvested and, in the case of Borgogno, transported to its main winery for processing. I have not been able to determine specifically where La Spinetta processes its Timorasso grapes but I would be surprised if it does not employ the same mechanism.

The grapes are fermented naturally in stainless steel tanks. La Spinetta's wine ages for 8 months on the lees after which it is filtered and bottled. The wine spends another 3 months in bottle before its release on the market. The Borgogno wine ages in concrete tanks for 10 months and then spends 6 months in bottle.

This Piccolo Derthona is La Spinetta's inaugural vintage; it will not be its best.  Neither the nose or palate yelled "Tortonesi Timorasso." The limited time on the lees associated with a Piccolo has yielded a relatively thin wine.

The Borgogno was pale gold in the glass but not as viscuous as the La Colombera. Elegant on the nose. Honeyed hay, lychee, spice, woody character, and mint. Rounded palate. Elegant initially. Salinity at the end yields to a mineral finish. One of the characteristics of Timorasso that I have to come to appreciate is its evenness on the palate from attack to finish. The salinity increases in intensity with residence in the glass, akin to some east coast Etna Carricantes that I have had in the past. 

I tasted the Borgogno on the second day and this salinty did not come to dominate the wine as I had feared. It was still a noted feature, but not unpleasantly so.

I will be evaluating the Vietti entrant next week.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme

La Colombera: A Timorasso disciple

Walter Massa is clearly the Messiah in the Timorasso story but a group of five or so early adherents can lay claim to the role of disciples in that they heard the message in the 1990s and followed along. La Colombera is numbered among that group.

The winery is owned by Elisa Semino (the winemaker), along with her father Piercarlo and her brother, and traces its roots back to a 1937 farm rental by her Grandfather. The cash crops then were wheat, chickpeas, and alfalfa while fruits, vegetables, vines, and animals were farmed for personal consumption. The vineyard was extended in the 1980s simultaneous with a decision to bottle the grapes grown on the farm.

In the 1990s, Piercarlo and Elisa saw what Massa was doing with Timorasso and, according to the company, were "among the first 5 wineries to believe in the rediscovery of Timorasso." They sought out parcels in their 20-ha estate that they felt would bring out the hallmark "marked minerality and defined quality" of the variety and settled on a site with an "alternation of clayey sandstone and marl layers, with limestone and tuff spots" and the right altitude.

In 2006, a specific portion of the vineyard was designated as the Montino cru and a Timorasso wine of the same name is produced from the grapes grown therein. The estate currently plants five different types of vineyards using a mass selection of Timorasso vines.

Grapes are farmed with a focus on a heathy environment. Only copper fungicides and sulfur are used in the vineyards and herbicides are eschewed.This conservatism carries through to the winery where only a small amount of sulfur is added just prior to bottling.

The estate currently bottles two (100%) Timorasso wines: The Montino cru and a Derthona. I tasted the the 2018 vintage of the latter.

Pale gold color initially and slightly viscuous in the glass. Intense, clear aromas of hay, sweet fruit, ice cream bean tree fruit (guaba), and liquid stone. With residence, the aromas become more refined and defined: intense sweet fruit encased in a spicy robe atop a mineral foundation.

Broad on the palate. Bright acidity -- a cross between grapefruit and orange -- with a spicy undertone. Vanilla bean, herbs, and spice intermixed with dried tamarind skin. Juiciness on the palate overtaken by encroaching minerality. Dried grape stem character. Long finish (spicy in the early stages, less so as the wine matured in the glass).

The fulsomeness on the palate addresses one of the shortcomings of a number of Italian whites. Suggestive of things to come.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme