I took a delivery of some samples a few weeks ago from Grapecircus, an importer with close connections to Sheridan’s Cheese shops. Enrico Fantasia, an Italian who landed up on these shores 12 years ago through a series of happy coincidences, runs the company.
Fantasia has a unique nose for a bargain. He also has the confidence to buy unusual wines from unknown regions. Where other importers tend to concentrate on a few well-worn favourites such as Pinot Grigio, Prosecco, Chianti and Ripassa, Grapecircus brings in Marzemino from Isera, Sangiovese from Emilia Romagna, Grechetto from Umbria, Teroldigo from Trentino and a host of other lesser-known Italian specialities. He does bring in the big names, but they tend to be from some small quirky producer he has stumbled across.
I spent a very happy long weekend tasting a different red and white wine each evening. Every wine had a different set of intriguing flavours, structure and levels of alcohol.
Some had fairly plain traditional labels. In the past this was often a sign a wine came from a large co-op responsible for vast quantities of very average wine. Now they are a welcome relief from the expensive over-designed labels that are the norm. But it was the sheer variety of flavours that kept me going back for another sip.
Italy offers an infinite range of wines. There are not many who could claim to be familiar with all of them. This is one of the few nations that produce wine in every part of the country. Running from the hot, sunny south, almost in North Africa – you can see the lights of Tunis from the Italian island of Pantelleria at night – to the frozen Alps in the far north, there are limitless variations of soil and climate. Add in a seemingly endless number of ancient indigenous grape varieties, many produced in tiny quantities in a single region, and you have an infinite range of possibilities. From the stern austere Nebbiolos of Piedmont (fans should take a look at Kerin O'Keefe's excellent new book, Barolo and Barbaresco) to the big powerful ripe wines of the south, there is no lack of choice. In fact the opposite might well be the problem.
Some producers in the better-known regions have joined the international brigade, making rich ripe oak-aged wines with a seamless smooth quality, often to the detriment of local character. But much of the time, Italy produces wines to drink rather than show off. The Italians love lighter red wines, often with a little acidity; perfect with food, the only time they drink wine. Areas such as Lazio have sometimes been accused of producing wine that is light in flavour and alcohol. Some may fall into this category, but drunk with a plate of food in a small trattoria in Rome, they make perfect sense.
Fantasia is not alone of course; there are other Italianophiles around. I would certainly recommend a visit to 64wine in Glasthule in South Dublin for all sorts of goodies from Italy; while there you could drop into Mitchell & Son a few doors up. The Wicklow Wine Company imports its own range of unusual Italian wines, and some great French wines too. In Dublin, both The Corkscrew and Wines on the Green are worth a visit. Of the supermarkets Marks & Spencer probably has the most eclectic Italian selection. Wines Direct have a good, interesting range and deliver nationwide.
Sheridan’s Cheesemongers work exclusively with wines from Grapecircus. With their dazzling array of cheeses, I sometimes think people forget their range of wines. However, I suspect that your local wine shop may well have its own offering of unusual Italian wines but you may not have noticed them before. Now is the time to try them out. I cannot promise that all of the wines will be great. But they will certainly make dinner a little more interesting.
