Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/551222
88 / the tasting panel / august 2015 The second Garganega-based white of the day was uncovered with a sweet, unassuming smile. You could tell owner of Sartori di Verona, Andrea Sartori, was not just presenting his wine, but more so his heart, and the label reading Ferdi Bianco Veronese IGT his coat of arms. Sartori's great-grandfather, Pietro Sartori founded Sartori di Verona in 1898; over a hundred years later, it's one of the top producers in the Veneto. Andrea has been the only man to be elected twice as President of Italy's principal wine producers' trade group, the Unione Italiana Vini (Italian Confederation of Vine & Wine), and has served on several other influential Italian organizations. He's also studied business at Verona's University of Economia e Commercio and attended the Cuoa business school in Vicenza. He sounded much more like a wine- maker than a keen businessman when he described the Ferdi Garganega as "white Amarone," explaining that the hand-picked Garganega grapes are dried for 40 days, pressed, macerated on skin, then divvied up and fermented in both oak cask and stainless steel. At 100% Garganega, the wine rests on lees for up to seven months, then ages in bottle for a minimum of four months. This sort of treatment is rare for this varietal, and the result is a very voluptuous version of Garganega. "Garganega is so versatile you can turn a simple Soave into something like this. It's an incredible platform to produce great wines," says Satori. "We're working with the two main platforms of Verona," and by that he means both Garganega and Corvina, or in today's case, Corvina Veronese, which comprised 100% of the second wine revealed: the 2012 estate bottled Regolo Rosso Veronese, IGT. These grapes also get very special treatment, hand-picked and selected, pressed gently and macerated at low temperature, optimizing skin contact for eight to ten days. After resting on Amarone pomace and malolactic fermentation, the wine ages for up to 24 months in medium to large oak casks, followed by four months refinement in bottle. "This is actually a ripasso system—although we don't put ripasso on the label," says Sartori, adding, "My grandfather died very young so I decided to make these wines [to honor] his memory." Maybe he knows, and maybe he doesn't, but this wine will surely honor Andrea's spirit as well. For an island, Sicily makes a lot of wine. It is Italy's largest region at 10,000 square miles, and is second in volume of wine produced; yet it achieves little wine at the DOC level. Palari vineyards, however, is considered one of the pioneer producers of Sicily, leading the movement towards lower yields and higher quality. Its proprietor, Salvatore Geraci, proudly displayed his 2012 Palari Rosso del Soprano: "My wine is a wine that comes from native grape varietals typical of the Eastern part of Sicily: Nerello Mascalese, Nerello Cappuccio, [Nocera], Galatena. You can compare these grapes to Pinot Noir." Those Pinot Noir–like grapes are softly pressed, fermented in temperature-controlled stainless steel, aged in new French oak for one year, and then refined in bottle for eight more months. These ancient varietals are vinified fittingly in an 18th-century villa on a hill, presiding over the Straits of Messina. But it was not the magnificent structure of the villa that caught our attention, it was the structure of the wine itself, and the same went for the next wine he presented—the 2011 Palari Faro. Faro is a noble wine, made since the 14th century B.C., according to archeo- logical studies. The blend is similar to that of the Rosso del Soprano, but the difference here is longer aging in barrel and bottle. Ancient recipes and winemaking techniques like these make Palari a Sicilian standout, but Geraci would add microclimate to that list. "The altitude gives us a great difference [between the] day time and night time temperatures. The closeness to the sea gives you a salinity which characterizes these wines." I'm inclined to agree. If either one of these wines show any fruit, it is certainly of the dried variety, as it's the salinity and secondary notes that THE PEOPLE'S PRINCE: ANDREA SARTORI THE ARCHITECT: SALVATORE GERACI 2012 Palari Rosso del Soprano, Sicilia IGT, and Palari Faro, DOC Andrea Sartori is family proprietor at Sartori di Verona. Salvatore Geraci is proprietor of Palari Vineyards. Ferdi Garganega and Regolo Rosso Veronese