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Vernaccia: Fifty shades of Grigio?

When I told my colleagues I was heading off to Regina Ribelle, the relatively new solo tasting for Vernaccia di San Gimignano, the responses were largely along the lines of: why bother? I suppose there are two answers to that question: first, I’m an optimist; and second, I’m reluctant to trust the wisdom of the crowd, even when it’s my crowd.

As a buyer, I’d found just enough excellent wines from Vernaccia di San Gimignano to convince me the variety had potential, even if largely unrealised thanks to the easy tourist market in San Gimignano. But tasting the wines of Montenidoli, Colombaio di Santa Chiara and Cappella Sant’Andrea, it remains clear that Vernaccia can have real personality, which is what wine needs to attract the kind of customers worth keeping.

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The problem, for Vernaccia, as for Pinot Grigio, lies in the broader tendencies of Italian white winemaking. While many red wines have benefited from the introduction, or rediscovery, of wild yeast ferments, botti and submerged caps, Italian white winemaking too often leans on stainless steel, aromatic yeasts and cool ferments. The results are monotonously predictable and the tasting notes write themselves: lightly floral, crisp orchard fruit, almond on the finish.

It’s a phenomenon I’ve started calling ‘fifty shades of Grigio’. Too cynical? Maybe. There are wines that buck the trend, like Trebbiano Abruzzese, Etna Bianco and top Campania Greco and Fiano. But, too often, native Italian white varieties with character, like Vernaccia, don’t get the chance to show it. They’re pressed into a modern, market-driven, neutrally inoffensive shape with all the individuality and appeal of a mannequin.

It’s especially frustrating with Vernaccia, which is a red grape in white wine clothing, with its golden fruit and tactile phenolics. It’s quite something to turn it into just another dry white wine. In that sense, the naysayers were right. There was plenty of competent white wine, but little that truly tasted like Vernaccia. The event title, translated as ‘Rebel Queen’, felt more aspirational than descriptive. And yet those wineries that did rebel from the formula and chose to meet Vernaccia on its own terms were the best of the tasting by far, ageing beautifully and demonstrating that this could be one of Italy’s great white wines. But there is a need for more producers in the region willing to be bold and embrace Vernaccia’s unconventional appeal in order to make that happen.

• Italy
• Italian
• white wine
• Regina Ribelle
• Vernaccia di San Gimignano
• Rebel Queen