The Next Big Thing, Vermentino

It is somehow fitting that the Decanter World Wine Awards should be held at Tobacco Dock in the East End of London. From the outside Tobacco Dock looks like a women’s prison. According to its website the massive building was constructed ‘in the early 19th Century as a secure bonded warehouse for the receipt and storage of tobacco from the New World. Tobacco Dock was designed to offer complete security for precious and highly desirable goods.’ Refurbished two years ago as an event venue, Tobacco Dock is ideal for wine tasting, full of natural light from the glass ceilings. And what is more highly desirable than wines of quality!

If I’m allowed a say in these things, my vote for the Next Big Thing is Vermentino. This light-skinned grape, masquerading under 40 different synonyms, is planted mainly in Corsica, Sardinia, Tuscany and Liguria (where it’s known as Pigato) and Piemonte (as Favorita). There are also plantings in the Languedoc and Roussillon (where it’s known as Rolle); but its finest expression comes from Sardinia where it represents the most widely planted variety, red or white.

In other words, Vermentino is a grape that likes warm, dry weather which is why it can be found in the following Californian wineries’ portfolios: Tablas Creek in Paso Robles, Mahoney Vineyards in the Napa Carneros, Uvaggio Vineyards in Lodi, and Thornton Winery in Temecula. And over eighty wineries in Australia from McLaren Vale to Margaret River grow this varietal. So why haven’t we heard more about this interesting wine in Ontario rather than being subjected to the oceans of Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio that flood the shelves? The SAQ lists sixteen Vermentino offerings and BC LDB three and the LCBO, one.

I first tasted Vermentino eleven years ago over lunch in the Cantinetta Antinori in Florence (the restaurant on the ground floor of the Antinori palazzo - a ‘must stop’ for anyone visiting that amazing city). The wine was a revelation – crisp and delicate with a light aromatic note and flavours of white peach and citrus fruit with a thread of minerality. I asked my host Piero Antinori about it and he told me the grapes came from the family’s Guado al Tasso Estate in Bolgheri on the Tuscan coast; but only a small quantity was produced which is why we didn’t see it in our market.

In the following years I have sought out Vermentino on wine lists wherever I’ve dined and happily it is beginning to show up more often. And last December I visited Sardinia, the spiritual home of the grape.

DNA analysis suggests that Vermentino might be related to the Hungarian Furmint, the principal grape used in the production of the dessert wine, Tokaji; and certainly the dry version of Furmint is quite similar in style to Vermentino. There is some question, however, as to whether the variety was imported into Italy from Hungary or whether the grape migrated from Italy to Hungary. Whatever its provenance, it has become the signature wine of Sardinia.

On Italy’s second largest island, after Sicily, Vermentino is grown in the northern province of Olbia-Tempio in an area known as the Gallura region. There is documentation placing the earliest reference to Vermentino being cultivated here that goes back to the fourteenth century. These vineyards are usually planted on slopes facing the sea so that the reflected light assists the ripening process. Although the salt sea air does impart a discreet salinity to the flavour of the wine (rather like the coastal Manzanilla sherries of Sanlucar de Barrameda.) While the Gallura denomination – a DOCG – is considered the best expression of this grape, Vermentino is also grown in the south of the island where it is produced mainly as either a sweet wine, a blended wine or a sparkler.

Producers of Sardinian Vermentino to look for are Costamolino from Argiolas, Funtanaliras from the Cantina del Vermentino Monti, Cantine di Gallura, Surrau Branu Vermentino di Gallura and Sella & Mosca La Cala. And in its sparkling version - Piero Mancini Vermentino di Gallura Spumante Brut. From other Italian regions, look for Castello di Volpaia Prelius Vermentino from Maremma, Banfi La Pettegola Vermentino from Bolgheri and from Antinori's estate Le Mortelle, in Castiglione della Pescaia, a wine called Le Mortelle Vivia, a blend of Vermentino, Viognier and Ansonica - one of the most exciting Italian whites I have tasted.