Decanter World Wine AwardsBisol ready to pick first grapes from Venetian island
- Wednesday 8 September 2010
- Comments (5)
Bisol planted the 1-ha walled vineyard at Tenuta di Venissa on the island of Mazzorbo with an authentic – and rare – Venetian white variety called Dorona.
Wine growing flourished on the islands around Venice as early as the15th century, but has been abandoned in modern times, and Bisol scoured the lagoon for the last remaining examples of Dorona, a distant relative of the Garganega of Soave.
The resulting wine, called Venissa, is on sale now as a future, with the first consignment due in February 2012.
The wine will be made under the supervision of high-profile consultant Roberto Cipresso.
Bisol’s technical director Desiderio Bisol said the wine will be dry with 'delicate fruit aromas on the nose and a distinctive tangy-mineral character on the palate’.
This year’s grapes will be floated across the water in frigo containers and vinified at Bisol’s Valdobbiadene winery, but there are plans to build a winemaking facility in the lagoon itself. This will also be used as a basis for the development of new vineyards on other islands.
‘Tourism has brought about the depopulation of the lagoon. We hope in the future to be able to contribute to revitalising the islands through the production of unique terroir wines,’ general manager Gianluca Bisol said.
The wine is being sold in six-bottle lots at €50 per bottle. It will come in 50cl bottles of specially-commissioned, hand-crafted Murana glass, flecked with gold leaf.
Have your say!
carla capalbo
September 14 14:40
can I correct myself: the third island is Santa Cristina, not Caterina...a slip of the saint
Carla Capalbo
September 10 08:52
Just so you know, a marvelous Venetian wine called Orto already exists
that has been made on the island of Sant Erasmo since 2007(across the
lagoon from Venice and Burano). It's an all-French project made with
all-Italian grape varieties grown on the fertile island best known for
its delicious artichokes, the castraure.
Orto is made of Malvasia Istriana, Vermentino and Fiano, three
varieties that love the coast. They were planted by owner Michel
Thoulouze in 2003 after he spent three years with soil experts, Claude
and Lydia Bourguignon, preparing the soil to de-salinize it and re-
digging the island's canals so that the tidal sea waters never again
flood the vineyards. The winemaker, Alain Graillot, of Crozes
Hermitage, has created a great white wine whose minerality makes it
age particularly well. WIth 4.5 hectares of vines, Orto is a wine to
look out for.
The third wine being made in the lagoon (apart from the small
quantities being made by many individual farmers for their own
consumption) is on the island of Santa Caterina. However, this wine
will not be available for sale.
Best from Carla Capalbo
Cesare Benelli
September 09 19:14
There are other wines already made in the lagoon (Giudecca,Sant'Erasmo etc.)
done with spontanaeus fermentation and of course without Cipresso multidollars consulting available for 6€ a bottle!
Hartker
September 09 09:24
In other words, the packaging will be more costly than the content. And the content - if the description in the article is correct - will be similar to a lot of 75cl bottles at a fraction of the price.