Torcolato di Breganze, what a Doc!

La Doc Breganze constitutes one of those cases, more unique than rare, where sweet wine excels over all and becomes synonymous with a designation and a territory. So offhand perhaps only Pantelleria is comparable. In fact, without going too far from the province of Vicenza, where Breganze stands in a hilly area embraced by the Astico and Brenta rivers, we find two clear examples in Verona. Where Valpolicella equals Amarone and not Recioto, just as Soave is still and dry wine rather than sweet and raisin wine.

Breganze is an exception; although white and red wines of no small personality have historically been produced here, the Torcolato continues to carry high the flag of this territory, constituting an exception to the rule that wants to see sweet wines increasingly “forgotten.”

Son of technique

First of all, it should be said that Torcolato is a wine that is the child of technique. We are also reminded of this Fausto Maculan, among the producers who first contributed to making this wine great and profiling its characteristics. Torcolato in fact was all that was produced with the technique of drying the grapes that were intorcolated and hung in fruit lofts.

Less important than the process was the nature of the grapes. As long as they were white and sparse-grape, anything was allowed. The characteristics of the grape varieties and grapes were thus at the service of the technical. Woody Allen would have said “as long as it works,” and it has for a long time.

The birth of the Consortium and the profile of Torcolato

Torcolato Breganze Doc turns 30 years old. Although the earliest written records date back to 1800 it is thirty years since we can speak of Torcolato as we understand it today. Not only a technique but also the choice of grapes had to be regulated. What then could be the queen grape for the area destined to become the protagonist in wine? The choice fell on the Vespaiola.

Well represented in terms of hectares, generous in production but tamed in this regard, medium hardy, with good acidity, suitable for drying and with a sparse bunch. A reasoned choice thus allowed the specification to take shape with Vespaiola starring at a minimum of 85 percent, the technique of appassimento in fruttaio, a minimum of alcohol and a minimum of sugar, and that fair amount of freedom for the producer in deciding how, where and how much to age the wine in the cellar.

The challenges of sweet wines

We need to speak in the plural because there are so many challenges in every area. Starting with the vineyard with the management of plant vigor and the selection of the best bunches at the withering process. The latter process to be monitored steadily, and then move on to the winemaking of dense and concentrated musts in which yeasts flounder if not aided and abetted in their needs. From the oenological challenge we then move on to the market where ways, times, customs and consumption have changed and sweet wines are often forgotten notes.

But sweet wines can be as fragile as they are powerful making themselves memorable and knowing no indifference, always generating – for better or worse – an emotion.

The 5-point ID card of sweet raisin wine

You either love it or you hate it. Indifference precisely does not exist. Sweet raisins are divisive wines. Clearly focusing on those who love them is the right thing to do.

I asked myself why I love them so much and summed it up in 5 points:

1. Slow. A self-respecting sweet raisin wine takes its time. It invites us to slow down, just as he of the rest is slow in the goblet, its viscosity is complicit.
2. Balance. That it is a fundamental concept for all wines is well established, for sweet wines even more so. Sweetness and acidity balanced and wrapped in a harmonious embrace by alcohol; all in favor of drinkability.
3. Versatility. Beware, not in the pairings but in the weather. Tenacious, vibrant, powerful, it knows how to evolve and never age. It is good when young, fascinating in tomorrow.
4. Technique. A good modern raisin wine is a technical wine. Knowing and mastering technique nowadays is indispensable.
5. Memorability. Ambitious certainly, but a great sweet raisin wine must always know how to leave its mark.

The First of Torcolato

For the occasion of the Premiere of Torcolato, a square event in which brethren and sisters of the Magnificent Fraglia of Torcolato parade through the streets of Breganze to the press in the piazza for the first public pressing, I participated in a vertical of the type. Here’s how it went.

Preface, not all the bottles were intended for such long aging, nor do they necessarily represent the estate’s top vintages. But the producers were willing to put themselves on the line by providing vintages significant to them and to the appellation, allowing us a more unique than rare journey through time.

TO READ THE WINE DESCRIPTIONS, WITH SCORE AND AVERAGE SHELF PRICE, CLICK ON THE TABS BELOW.