Heroes of Viticulture: A Journey Through the Vertical Vineyards of Rossese di Dolceacqua
The Landscape
The top of Santa Croce gives its name to the town of San Biagio. San Biagio della Cima is a mix of wild and domestic character with its dry stone walls, built between 300 and 600 AD, during full moon nights to save time, up to 800 meters in height. It took a lot of patience in the blue sky to raise all these walls. From the top of Santa Croce, you can see the farthest corner of Italy for at least 15km in every direction. The sea is a grey-blue plate; the seagulls return to it at sunset, when the sea breeze gives way to the cold pre-Alpine currents. They seek the warmth that evaporates along with the day.
To get there, you take a mule track among pines, gorse, and lentisk. The path is rugged, with paths on gorges, passages among brambles; gentle plants and flowers of tender beauty adorn it. The anemone is purple, the vervain is yellow. Everything is pastel-colored, except for the cistus, a bright fuchsia, stunning and bold. In the nose, the smell of rosemary and thyme, in the eyes` the image of the sea that is not there, that cannot be seen from here: but the light is a "sea light". This is how life is in the Ligurian hinterland, with the awareness of the sea as a destiny, even if the sea is hidden by the ridges. That's why in the novels of Francesco Biamonti, from his hills, the sea can be seen. The wind has almost laid down the bushes, the silence here is solid matter. The barren ridges conceal the idea of a wine-producing land, hide the trace of man and the "corti", the shelters carved out during the war. Everything is found in the wrinkled faces of the elderly with silent manners and a maritime nature, like their red wine. They speak in hints, it's a shy dialogue, mostly made of friendly gestures, like picking figs to offer with a smile that spreads in their eyes.
The vines
Along the gentler slopes of the region, the Rossese di Dolceacqua zone stretches out. The first Ligurian wine to obtain DOC status in 1972. The valleys are two, perpendicular to the coast with a north-south aspect and separated by a vine-covered ridge. They take their names from the rivers that have carved them, one more tranquil and wide in an open, windy and cooler area, the other is more secluded and winding and on average milder. This is both because it is closer to the sea and because it is closed to the north by the Perinaldo ridge, which interrupts the flow of fresh air from the interior. To the west is the Nervia Valley, the hinterland of Ventimiglia, with the villages, going inland, of Camporosso, Dolceacqua, and Isolabona; to the east is the Verbone Valley, the hinterland of Bordighera, with Vallecrosia, San Biagio della Cima, Soldano and, more far-inland, Perinaldo. The Verbone Valley is also more uneven, urbanized and this somewhat diminishes its otherwise undeniable charm. Given the north-south development of both valleys, the slopes have east and west exposures. In both cases, however, the vineyards are concentrated almost exclusively in the middle-upper part of the hills, and therefore in positions that are not visible by traveling along the valley roads (so much so that at a first you might doubt that the vineyards actually exists). Almost needless to add that, with rare cases, the vine is cultivated on terraces stubbornly carved out on the steep slopes of the hills, with all the problems and expenses that derive from it (and yet Rossese cannot be defined as an expensive wine).
Among the changes to the 2011 DOC regulations, the most important is the introduction of 38 additional geographical indications (MGAs), that is, the list of vineyards that can be mentioned on the label. Several historic vineyards, no longer cultivated for years, such as "San Gregorio," along the ridge separating the two valleys, between Morghe and the sea; "Lutu" below Cian da Marchesa; and "Villatalla," perched above Dolceacqua, are missing from this list.
Among the MGAs, those that deserve mention, divided by slope, are: along the western crest of Val Nervia (western slope) there are Pian del Vescovo (Camporaso), Arcagna (Dolceacqua), Cima Tramontina (Dolceacqua), and Armetta (Dolceacqua). Pian del Vescovo is in a stunning location, but in the past, wines produced here had a strong modernist character. Arcagna is without a doubt the Grand Cru of Rossese: it stretches along the westernmost ridge but looks out over the sunrise from a high and panoramic position. Tramontina and Armetta are small plots of vineyard in more internal positions, the latter has a south-southwest exposure on a hill placed crosswise to the main valley.
The eastern slope of the Val Nervia has as its "showcase" Morghe (Dolceacqua) and Luvaira (Camporosso, San Biagio and Soldano). Of Morghe there are many, but the real Morghe start from the church of Addolorata and reach the summit of the slope, passing from a south (majority) exposure to a full west. An exposure that partly compensates for the rather high altitude (400m above sea level), but that does not prevent the wine from expressing itself with a sharper tone compared to others, capable of gaining character over time. Luvaira, like Morghe, is a vast area (across three towns). What is now claimed on the label as such falls almost exclusively in the municipality of Camporosso, and specifically in the area called Pian dei Morti. Some century-old vines are worth visiting alone.
The eastern slope of Val Verbone is the richest in great vineyards: they are or have been Alpicella (Perinaldo), Galeae, Beragna, Pini, Foulavin (all in Soldano), and Posau '(San Biagio della Cima). Galeae, a small cru located at the top of the slope, with high terraces that resemble a Roman amphitheater, and Posau', a beautiful and steep concave of vineyards, are the crus capable of giving the most full-bodied and warm Rossese, as well as two of the most beautiful vineyards of Liguria. Beragna, with its fresh exposure that turns from east to northeast, produces agile, nervy and fragrant Rossese, less colored than Galeae. Pini (Poggio Pini) is by far the most scenic cru of the denomination, a terraced promontory on the valley, perpendicular to the town of Soldano. Here Rossese are riper, generous yet balanced. The same character and reputation are said to have the wines of Foulavin. Along the eastern flank of the Val Verbone, further away from the sea, there are only two noteworthy cru: Savoia and Curli, the latter, at less than one hectar, accompanied by an aura of legend and defined by Luigi Veronelli, a famous Italian wine critic, as the "Romanée' of Italian wine."
The Soils
Despite layers of clay, marl, and limestone, sandstone is predominant. However, even within the main vineyards, there are significant differences. In the upper part of the Arcagna, for example, the ancient marine bed of fine white clays mixed with limestone was first raised by orogenesis (the collision of two fronts with uplift of a central peak), then it gradually crumbled into white sands with a surface consistency of icing sugar. This area, with spectacular cliffs and ravines shaped by time, is called Terre Bianche. Elsewhere, as at Galeae and various other vineyards, the brown ocher clay block has solidified and cracked into schist, in thin sheets or square blocks, slippery like soap when wet, and of a certain hardness, both on the ground and on the walls; in dialect, this formation is called "sgruttu" and is considered the best for Rossese by many of the older winegrowers for obvious reasons. The “sgruttu" has less draining power than the sands, retains water and makes the arid and dry seasons less stressful for the vine, as well as giving, due to its clay origin, more powerful, robust wines; which, in the first half of the twentieth century, was rarely achieved elsewhere with Rossese.
The Vineyard
The Rossese di Dolceacqua DOC is made with a minimum of 95% of Rossese grapes, with the remaining 5% made up of permitted local grape varieties. This residual 5% was not intended to suggest the need for any "improvements" to the wine but rather to cover up the traditional “impurities” of vineyards, due to farmers' tendency towards mixed crops and the occasional mistakes made by nurserymen. Many of these residual grapes, still found in older vineyards, remain unidentified: far from being improvers. Rossese is one of the most high-quality Italian red grapes. It is vigorous, with small and loose bunches of small blue-black berries with a thin skin. It is sensitive to rot and powdery mildew, which is known as "mal bianco" in this area. Ideal exposures are to the south and west, or even east in the case of well-ventilated vineyards. It is fertile in the basal buds and traditionally pruned short, often trained as a gobelet (alberello). Gobelet training is also used due to the terraces (fasce) and the need to shade grape and soils in a dry region like few others in Europe at the same latitude. It buds early, which exposes it to spring frosts, a common problem in the last century. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were three thousand hectares of vineyards in this area, but many disappeared due to attraction of floriculture business, which appeared more profitable than grape cultivation (and less frost-risky). A partial meteor, burned out soon by the northern European competition that, if it left ghosts of greenhouses to spoil a magnificent landscape but that has the merit of having brought roads, electricity and all those services essential to give life to the hinterland that languished in a subsistence agriculture.
The most used rootstock is 1103 Paulsen, suitable for warm areas; very similar, with one less point of vigor and one more of ductility, 779 Paulsen. Also found in the area is 140 Ruggeri, known for its ability to support table grape plants and its determination in launching its fearsome root system. It is of this rootstock, or of its forefather Rupestris Du Lot, that old local vignerons speak when they mention the rootstock that they say is more traditional, the "Monticolo" (=Rupestris).
Winemaking
As with many traditional Italian wines, Rossese di Dolceacqua has traditionally been produced with the aid of oak barrels for both aging and fermentation. While the exact type of oak used is not well-documented, many barrels were made from chestnut, with oak being used less frequently. The small and narrow cellars of San Biagio and Dolceacqua, as well as the cramped spaces of family wineries, dictated the use of smaller barrels. The use of oak helped to stabilize the color of Rossese, allowing it to maintain its color for the year following the harvest, and also provided a natural oxygenation for a wine that is sensitive to reduction. Historically, whole clusters of grapes were also used in fermentation, without destemming. As master winemakers in Burgundy have taught us, fermentation with stems can extend the aging process in bottle, as the aromatic profile can be muddled in the early stages of the wine's life, but ultimately leads to greater complexity, elegance, and clarity of aroma. The wine's DOC regulations do not specify any particular requirements for aging vessels, but there are two types of Rossese: the standard version, which can be released as early as January of the year following the harvest, and the Rossese Superiore, which cannot be released until November of the year following the harvest. The maximum yield for both types is 90 quintals per hectare.
Favourite Producers:
Terre Bianche
Maccario-Dringenberg
Tenuta Anfosso
Ka Mancine’
Testalonga