If this month had a theme here at Opening a Bottle, it would be throwing unhelpful terminology out the window. Traditional and modern Barolo? A nice historic anecdote, but not really a thing anymore. And has “grower Champagne” lost its meaning if growers are buying some fruit to weave their magic? I’ve had a lot to think about, it seems.
But how about “orange wine?” This might be the most slippery term of all, and it is one I’ve been diving into deeply behind the scenes for a chapter in my forthcoming book on Italian wine.
What if you have a wine made from red grapes via short maceration that is a blazing ochre pigment?
The concept of orange wine is simple: it is a white wine that has been allowed to macerate longer on the skins so as to extract color, flavor compounds and tannin. You could say it is an upside down rosé, but that’s only in practice, not taste. A true orange wine offers unbelievable complexity, which rosé simply cannot achieve. It has body and structure to a degree that white wine lacks, yet it is more soft and less angular than a majority of red wines. For these reasons, it has added a fourth color to our wine spectrum: white, orange, rosé and red.
But what if you have a wine made from red grapes via short maceration (in other words, a rosé) that has a blazing ochre hue? That’s what I was faced with recently when I encountered Di Giovanna’s exceptional Sicilian rosé called “Vurrìa.” Looks can be deceiving, but details matter when it comes to framing one’s expectation. If I was presented only a glass of this wine, without a label to read, I might have expected some of the orange-wine traits mentioned earlier upon first sip. But instead, I was granted a narrower but no-less brilliant spectrum of flavors that only rosé can own: racy tangerine citrus, a dried herbal trait and a sensation of saltiness that leant persistence. It was simplicity done to sublimity.
Of course, some of this may be due to the age of this bottle of “Vurrìa:” a 2021, which is downright geriatric in the lifespan of most rosé. Indeed, looking at newer vintages, this rosé has more of a pinkish hue as one would expect, and while a clear-glass bottle opens the door to light strike flaws (especially over three years of UV exposure), I don’t mind taking a chance on an older rosé when Nerello Mascalese is involved. Merchants and distributors hate having out-dated rosé because they can’t sell it, but if the producer is conscientious and the bottle has been stored well, you can find something that achieves novel flavors and sensations.
While I wouldn’t throw the adage of buying only new vintage rosé out the window (not entirely when we’re talking about a category tailor-made for only quick consumption), I would say that Di Giovanna’s “Vurrìa” — 2021 or 2023, which I’ve also tried — is worth seeking out.
2021 Di Giovanna “Vurrìa” Sicilia Nerello Mascalese Rosato
Sicilia DOC (Sicily )
Grapes: Nerello Mascalese (100%)
Alcohol: 12%
Opinion: ★★★★ 3/4
Food friendliness: Versatile
Value: Very Good
A beginner might like … taking part in the blossoming rosé scene from Sicilia. With a climate ideally suited for drinking rosé, it only makes sense that the progressive winemakers of the island are making some of the most intriguing rosato wines in Italy. Di Giovanna’s “Vurrìa” being just one of them.
A wine obsessive might like … taking a chance on an “outdated” rosato vintage, especially if a retailer is offering a discount. I wouldn’t do this with some of the larger brands from Sicily, whose rosé wines always taste like a simple rush job to me. But for the independent family producers, such as Di Giovanna? Why not? In fact, I think what you lose in tension with an extra year of aging you gain in complexity of flavor.
Note: This wine was provided as a sample by the winery’s Colorado-based importer. Learn more about my editorial policies.
