I love Italian wine for the diversity of indigenous cultivars, or autochtones, as Italians call them. One example is the dense, prodigiously savory and great-value Anna Spinato Malanotte del Piave DOCG 2016, from the Veneto wine region. A fully weighted wine, with riffs on smoked meat, camphor, mahogany, pithy dried cherry and alpine herb all drawn taut across a carapace of spindly tannin by the Raboso grape’s signature acidity, it’s as idiosyncratic as it is brilliant.
Born of extended aging in bottle (24 months) and partial appassimento (20 percent), conferring depth and a whiff of balsamic, this is a stepping stone into Italy’s kaleidoscopic diversity. Raboso is a cultivar that defines regional inimitability, the chief factor that makes Italian wine so special, be it in the Veneto region or elsewhere.
Before the Malanotte del Piave DOCG – which sits on the alluvial plains of the Piave River – was ratified in 2018, the wines were bottled as Raboso Piave Superiore, long a staple on local tables. Raboso Piave boasts a surfeit of acidity and tannin, but it had taken a back seat to international varieties such as merlot and cabernet franc, which were first introduced to the Veneto region in the 1830s as a bulwark against phylloxera before their fecundity in the vineyard and ease of vinification eventually made them regional staples.
Yet while the New World appropriates such varieties to newer regions in pursuit of something they can call their own, inimitability is the ace up Italy’s wine sleeve. There is now greater interest in the country’s authentic, diverse and intriguing indigenous varieties than the interchangeable, international ones. And with Italy boasting more of its own native grapes than any country on earth, it’s another reason to celebrate as the likes of Raboso rise again.
– Ned Goodwin MW, Senior Editor
