From: Liguria, Italy
Varietal: Vermentino
Taste: This wine is beachy and refreshing with aromas and flavors of citrus, like zesty lemon and a dash of key lime, that move into pomelo and green apple notes over a wave of saline minerality. Apple blossom and Mediterranean herbs like sage and thyme round out all the fruit and citrus tones. Combined, this wine carries all the hallmarks of quality and texture that’ll have you craving another glass before you know it.
Pairing: The region of Liguria boasts some of the best food in Italy—including pesto (check out the recipe below), minestrone, and focaccia. Because Liguria is on the coast, seafood and fish are a big part of the diet here, and many of the region’s famous foods and recipes were first invented or eaten on ships or by fishermen. Not in the mood for seafood? Go for fresh flavors: pasta with quality olive oil and Mediterranean influences, roasted or skillet chicken, or vegetarian highlights centered around spring pea vines, chickpeas, zucchini or squash blossoms, and haricots verts.
Pan-Seared Fish With Citrus Pesto
By Ali Slagle
About. Many thanks to the importer, Porto Vino, for the following information! Liguria, the crescent-shaped strip of a region that arcs from Tuscany to France and separates Piemonte from the Mediterranean Ocean, is a mountainous land of beautiful but often rugged beaches, spectacular seafood and vegetables, and yes, wine. Most visitors get their first glimpse of Liguria by speeding along the A10 autostrada, ducking into and out of tunnels carved into the steep, coastal mountains perched just above the sparkling sea below. As you drive from Genoa towards France in Liguria Ponente (western Liguria, or the Liguria of the Setting Sun), you see vineyards on your left, below the autostrada. But if you take the exit at the coastal town of Albenga and head uphill instead of down to the sea, you wind your way steeply up into an utterly different world from the seaside resorts and vines.
It’s here, in the tiny village of Vendone, 12 kilometers inland and 300 meters above the sea, that Ettore and Natalina Vio planted vines and olive trees amidst the mountain scrub in the 1970s. Their son Claudio and his wife, Maria Grazia, now tend the family farm. A dispersed patchwork of tiny, terraced vineyard plots adding up to just two hectares — mostly Pigato, with a little Vermentino — yield just enough wine for Portovino to bring in a few hundred cases a year. Farming is lotta integrata. All harvesting is manual and fermentations are with native yeasts.
After a manual harvest, the Vermentino bunches meant for this wine are destemmed and crushed, and the must is left to macerate with the skins for 24-36 hours. Fermentation with native yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks (18-20°C) lasts about 25 days. After fermentation, the wine spends 1-2 months on the lees without stirring, a total of six months in stainless steel, and a minimum of two months in bottle before release. Total production is about 750 cases per year.
P.S. Check out this awesome article about Italian Vermentino by Tom Hyland.
Vermentino: Italy's Sleek And Sexy Seaside White Wine
By Tom Hyland, Forbes. Published July 16th, 2018.