Fondo Antico Grillo Parlante 2007

Posted on 18 February 2009

Sicily is one of the largest wine producers in the world. According to latest estimates, its vineyard area is similar to that of Chile or Germany. The last two decades saw a dynamic growth for this once-underdeveloped region. Today, you will find Sicilian wine on any supermarket shelf or Italian restaurant wine list.

Growth brought problems. With few indigenous producers large and smart enough to compete on the Italian and international market, Sicily has become a huge investment camp for big companies. Industrial mammoths from the Veneto, Australian winemakers, English-language brand names, deep-coloured unoaked jammy low-acid red wines: everything was done to make Sicily the New World of the Mediterranean.

This blog entry is too short to fully discuss the issue. One notable victim of Sicily’s ascension are its white wines. Once making up perhaps 70% of the island’s production, they have been pushed into the shadow of the reds, with Nero d’Avola catching the public’s attention. The problem with Sicilian whites in the past was that they were quite poor. With little technology, a predominantly local consumption, and easy grape sales to the large Marsala producers, they were often oxidised, flabby, with no fruit. With the wind of change, ‘international’-styled whites were created, often with imported grapes such as Chardonnay.

Yet Sicily has a wide array of indigenous white grapes. Grecanico and Damaschino might be high-yielding and fairly neutral, but Inzolia and Catarratto (one of the world’s biggest grapes with over 100,000 ha planted) have already that with proper farming and a good terroir, crisp, mineral, distinctive wines can be made. And Carricante, native to the breathtaking volcanic vineyards on the slopes of the Etna, is one of Mediterranean Europe’s rising stars.

And then we have the naughty big brother: Grillo. In the western, lower-lying part of Sicily this grape is ubiquitous. The reason is simple: with its natural high grape sugar and a certain easiness to oxidise, it is made for Marsala.

In recent years, as Marsala has grown terribly unfashionable (when did you last open a bottle?), there is a large amount of Grillo grapes available. Some go into the rock-bottom industrial whites but there is also a growing number of more ambitious bottlings. Unfortunately (for me), most of these are made in an over-the-top style, pushing the grape’s natural characteristics to the limit instead of trying to balance them. Its rich bouquet of peaches and spice is technicolored into late-harvest overripeness, and lowish acidity made worse by the use of malolactic and/or oak. It’s surely no coincidence this profile is so similar to Viognier, the current white variety craze all over southern Europe. Since in a white wine I look most of all for freshness and minerality, these Grillos are not for me.

Today’s wine, Fondo Antico Grillo Parlante 2007, is really comforting. It shows what can be achieved with Grillo if ambitions are well-directed instead of being misplaced. Fondo Antico is a smallish and rather recent estate – I first came into contact with owner Agostino Adragna in 2003 when he sent me a few bottles to try. At the time, the Grillo Parlante was corked, unfortunately. This bottle is singing. Colour is a pale gold (as opposed to the deep orange of many modern Grillos). Interesting nose, rather allusive than upfront: ripe peach, a bit of floweriness, good depth. Brilliant balance on palate, some truly alluring fruit while keeping a serious architecture. I challenge you to find as crisp and mineral a Grillo as this. Brilliant, cultured, rewarding wine. Yes, Grillo can make a deep terroir white – if you give it a chance.