Stroppolatini part I: Divine winery visit in Colli Orientali del Friuli, Italy

The main building of Stroppolatini winery.

All this beauty! The main building, magnificently glowing in every shade of pink imaginable, and Mrs Barbara Stroppolatini’s fiery red roses as well as the emerald vineyards are equally competing for my admiration, until Tom, the (nearly) one-toothed cat, arrives. Not really interested in me, he is just checking whether San Daniele ham is already being served to the guests? Sorry Tom, not yet, priorities first (although, I suppose, ham really is Tom’s priority). It is time to talk about wine. 

And there comes Federico Stroppolatini, our brilliant host, who is together with his father and boss, Il Capo, Giuliano Stroppolatini, responsible for the entire process of viticulture and winemaking at Stroppolatini winery. As Federico narrates the history of the farm, everything around us becomes alive. In the 18th century there were only observation posts on this hill, up until the 1820’s, when a relative of Stroppolatini, Luigi Francesco Spezzotti, bought the place. 170 years ago the first vineyards were planted making this farm one of the oldest in the area.  Simultaneously, the tradition of excellent hospitality was established only to be continued today at Stroppolatini’s attractive B&B Casali del Picchio. As a part of our tour, we got to take a peek at its beautiful, classic Riviera style decorated rooms that, I have to say, are a dream accommodation for a wine lover travelling in Friuli.

170 years old vines in front of violinist's house are featured in 1850's art work.

So impressive was the hospitality here also in 1850’s that a well known artist, Giuseppe Liusso, after an extended stay, painted a picture of the scenery as a thank you gift for his hosts. Astonishingly, what we see on the painting is practically identical to the scenery we witness today: the very same pink main building, the small white violinist’s house (built to spare others’ ears from the family’s violinist practising) and, most precious of all, the actual Friulano and Merlot vines that still grow in the hillside vineyard in front of the violinist’s house, still as healthy and productive as ever. 170 years old, these vines are as old as the winemaking tradition of this house. Treasuring the tradition and beauty of their farm, Stroppolatinis have printed the painting on their label.

The historical scenery of the farm is printed on Stroppolatini label.

  

Il Capo, Giuliano, and his viticulture and oenology studying university student son, Federico, continuously explore how to best combine today’s knowledge with the local, artisanal winemaking tradition. Aiming at high quality first and foremost, Giuliano Stroppolatini decided in 1999 that the farm’s wine production should be expanded and made a public activity on the contrary to making wine solely for family consumption. More vineyard area from a neighbour was purchased and local varieties planted, amongst them Pignolo - even if Giuliano Stroppolatini’s close friend, also a producer, first reacted along the lines of: ”Oh, no, no Pignolo, that grape juice can only be used for writing, as ink!”.

Nevertheless, Giuliano was to stick to his guns, and today Federico thanks his father for his bold choices. Now Pignolo is Stroppolatini’s capolavoro, or as Federico puts it: ”This wine is our firework”. Stroppolatini’s Pignolo is one of the few 100% Pignolo varietal wines produced in this area where the grape is autochthonous, which makes it one of the few 100% Pignolo wines in the entire world. Regardless of its unpredictable and low yields, its utter messiness in the winery (in this sense Giuliano's friend was indeed right) and the prolonged aging it demands, Federico maintains that Pignolo produces results that make it all worthwhile. Tasting the resulting wines will be the topic of my winery visit part II blog post, when Federico takes us to the cellar. But we will get there, to taste Pignolo, I promise! For this part I post, my focus is on Stroppolatini’s winemaking philosophy, to highlight the background of their products and thus enable the full appreciation of the tasting experience ahead.

The wonderfully inviting Stroppolatini family (from left): Barbara, Giuliano, Marianna, and our brilliant host, Federico. (Image: stroppolatini.it)

  

Stroppolatini’s viticulture and winemaking practices are focused around sustainability and uninterventionist philosophy. Driven by the objective of producing varietally expressive, local tradition reflecting, and Colli Orientali area’s uniquely mineral ponca -terroir communicating wine, everything that could disturb the vine’s own voice is avoided. Stroppolatinis choose not to use pesticides or fertilisers (apart from humus from composting plants), and minimize machinery usage in the vineyard, harvesting manually. For disease prevention, only following the plants’ health with a keen eye and, when necessary, traditional sulphur and copper oxide based sprays are used. Systemic interventions are avoided to the greatest extent possible, and used only if they are imperative. Fortunately, the last such occasion took place over five years ago, and since then systemic interventions have not been used. The oldest, 170 years old vines don’t need much help staying healthy as they have built a strong immunity surviving throughout the centuries. This is exactly the direction towards which Federico would like to see all of their vines developing through sustainable disease prevention. 

I was in awe of Mrs Barbara's roses.

When it is harvest time, Stroppolatinis invite the locals to work with them, manually picking only the healthy grapes, being careful not to damage them. Federico wouldn’t want to use machinery for the harvest even if he could, because ”machine harvesting takes the magic out of the wine”. He enjoys the feeling of community that the shared experience of harvest brings to their vineyards. Besides, the most important human skill, the careful selection of only the ripe and intact grapes, and their gentle picking, can’t be taught to a machine. For a small, artisanal winery of six hectares, the guarantee of quality is the precision of human touch.

Colli Orientali's mineral ponca soil consists of eocene marl.

Moreover, in the winery, the current knowledge is combined with traditional, uninterventionistic winemaking as a modern, pneumatic press only gently breaks the skins of the grapes before fermentation, releasing just right proportion of colour an tannins for the traditional, long macerations. Natural fermentations of the yeasts on the grape skins are allowed, boosted only by using locally isolated, hence terroir reflecting, yeast strains. The fermentations take place in stainless steel, and the natural yeasts would struggle without the addition of selected yeast strains. Further, the resulting aromas of wine are better controlled using selected yeasts that will dominate the fermentation, while the complexity of the aromas is preserved by allowing the presence of natural strains in the mix.

Friulano matures 18-20 months in stainless steel.

After exceptionally long macerations and maturations of minimum of 18 months for white wines and 2 years for red, there are plenty of stabilizing agents in the wines, and, simultaneously, the deposits have had plenty of time to settle. Hence, Stroppolatinis don’t use fining agents at all, and need only to use minimal levels of SO2 (sulphites) to ensure the preservation of their wines. All of the above taken together, Stroppolatini’s production is practically organic, although they have not gone through the certification process. However, it is safe to say that they take pride in sustainable and carefully preventive vineyard practises as well as uninterventionistic winemaking.

In Friuli, the long maceration and maturation times for whites are traditional, but today more an exception than a rule. Most whites are quickly pressed off their skins and bottled to be sold the year following their vintage, producing a light, crispy, fruit-driven style. However, Giuliano Stroppolatini does not follow the whims of fashion but believes in structured whites he produces from the local Friulano grape. Keeping the juice in skin contact for ten days extracts colour, flavour and even tannin to the white wine. Moreover, he has recently started to experiment further into traditional wine making, bringing in oak. Now two versions of long matured Friulano are being made at Stroppolatini: the fruity, yet structured, 18-20 months stainless steel matured version, and the creamy, full-bodied oak matured version, that has undertaken malolactic fermentation. All the oak barrels used, also for red wines, are used, neutral tonneaux made of French or Slavonian oak. The result of oak aging is gentle, controlled effect of oxygen without noticeable oak flavour influence. Reaching this sentence, dear readers, makes me realise that I’m heading straight to the wine cellar. So, it is time to restrain my fingers running on the keyboard and start wrapping up. 

Highly productive Friulano vines getting better with age!

Upcoming on the II part of Stroppolatini winery visit: a legion of tasting notes from the Stroppolatini wine cellar featuring their excellent varietal wines of both international and interesting and fantastic local, Friulian grape varieties such as Pignolo. Plenty of laughter and fun with our excellent host Federico, one of our entertaining themes being Beetle, who indeed likes prosciutto. Or as Federico says: ”The cat arrives, when the ham arrives.” But why does Tom have (almost) only one tooth left? Also that will be revealed in the part II. Until then, dear readers!

Coordinates

Azienda Agricola Stroppolatini

Strada di Prepotto, 21

Gagliano

33043 Cividale del Friuli, Italia

stroppolatini.it

stroppolatiniazagri@hotmail.it

casalidelpicchio@virgilio.it

Staying at B&B Casali del Picchio is a wine lover's dream.

Winemaking in Valpolicella

High quality Valpolicella is hill-grown.

Too steep! Our little rental car protests agreeing only to the first gear as we start climbing up the home hills of quality Valpolicella. Here the traditional divide between classico and non-classico wine zones doesn’t always indicate respective quality difference. Rather, quality is essentially a function of two things: restricted yields, and grapes grown in the hills instead of the plain. With these points in mind, we continue travelling at a steep angle in our heroistic, high-pitched vehicle.

Finally, we reach our destination: Tommaso Bussola’s winery close to Negrar in Valpolicella classico. The car now parked and silent, one can only hear vine leaves swishing. Peaceful and filled with roses in full bloom, this landscape is the obvious home for the concentrated, powerful, yet floral Amarone.

But let's not hurry, dear vinous friends. Before we get to the winery visit at Bussola, I feel a need to cover some basics. Hence, this post is about the winemaking techniques typical of Valpolicella area, and will later be followed by posts about Amarone, and Tommaso Bussola winery.

Three styles of winemaking in Valpolicella

Valpolicella red wines are made with three distinct techniques. First, there is Valpolicella normale; second, Recioto and Amarone made of partially dried grapes; and third, ripasso wine. The ordinary Valpolicella is made along the lines of any normal red wine with relatively short maceration with fresh grape skins. The resulting product may be anything from a structured premium wine from grapes grown in the hills or a light, fruity and uncomplicated bulk wine from the plains.

Although the bulk wines from Adige river valley plains have harmed Valpolicella’s reputation, it has retained its greatness through Recioto, a sweet and bitter red reminiscent of fortified wines, and especially through Amarone, currently a star product of the area. Recioto and Amarone’s exceptional concentration is achieved through partially drying the grapes before winemaking. While this appassimento technique results in a third of the water volume being evaporated, all the goodness in the grapes is concentrated - especially sugar and extract. The grapes for Amarone are dried in this manner atleast for four months, and Recioto grapes even longer. This takes place in special drying rooms usually built in the lofts of the wineries. The beautiful, lacy brick structures typical to Valpolicella wineries hence serve a crucial function besides being aesthetic.

The brick lace drying room walls of Bussola winery.

Once the grapes are sufficiently dried, they are crushed and the fermentation begins. Challenging the fermenting yeasts, the must has a high sugar concentration. Although sugar is just what yeasts need to function, a very high concentration of sugar can paradoxally hinder the yeast or even kill it. Whether the fermentation is completed depends on the specific strains of yeast involved. Strains better equipped to tolerate high levels of sugar and alcohol can ferment the wine to dryness, resulting in Amarone. If the fermentation comes to a halt at en earlier point, residual sugar is present and the wine produced is Recioto. Actually, it is speculated that Amarone (amare, ital. for bitter) was originally Recioto gone wrong! Both wines have a high alcohol content due to the high sugar levels at the start of fermentation. Legally it is required that Amarone has a minimum of 14 % alcohol.

Ripasso, the third technique, innovatively utilises the grape skins left behind from Amarone fermentation. These skins full of power, flavour and phenols are used to upgrade Valpolicella normale by taking this ordinary, often relatively light red in contact with the Amarone skins for second fermentation. This way the resulting ripasso (re-passed) wine, although still lighter and less alcoholic, receives more power and body, and communicates the aromatic complexity of Amarone.

In my next post I’ll still be looking at Amarone in more depth. After that, I’ll take you to meet the Bussolas. Cin cin until then! 

Valpolicella normale waits for ripasso in stainless steel.