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The Raboso vines stand on the plain of the sluggish Piave River in the eastern Veneto. But that is not the only reason why this red is the sheer opposite of the DOCG Prosecco of Valdobbiadene, which grows in the immediate vicinity: From steep hills, internationally successful, white sparkling and sweetly fruity the one, dark red, acidic, dry, in need of storage from flat sites and completely unknown the other. Only a few decades ago, Raboso was known far and wide, even if not under its own name: Like the strong wines of the south, it served as a support for more prominent growths of Tuscany and Piedmont with its intense colour and striking acidity.

The enthusiasm with which committed Piave winegrowers have been looking after this autochthonous, endangered speciality again for some years now is intoxicating. Raffaella Usai and Andreas März would like to share this enthusiasm with Merum readers.

Giorgio Cecchetto is an incredible guy! When we visited him, we just wanted to interview him and take a few photos. Such a visit usually takes one, at most two hours... it turned out to be eight hours! This person is so steeped in Raboso that it is impossible to resist his enthusiasm. We were not only allowed to walk around his geometrically very peculiar experimental vineyard, but also to stick our noses into all his experiments and taste from all the barrels. He is not the only one who presses the Raboso white and makes a bottle-fermented sparkling wine from it. Whether his Raboso Metodo Classico is really as outstanding as we thought it was on this eventful evening, we will probably only find out in a sober blind tasting.

After the 6,000-litre barrel of 96 had been tapped and we had advised Giorgio not to put this wine aside for his children, but to bottle it, the evening was already quite advanced. Nevertheless, the restless winemaker pushed us into his car and drove with us from Vazzola across the nocturnal growing area to Motta di Livenza to a large, ultra-modern cellar building that he had just completed and - as we had to believe him in view of the impenetrable darkness - stood in the middle of a 15-hectare vineyard. At some point that night, he took us to his favourite restaurant (Locanda Eccellentissima) in Motta "solo per un caffè...". We should have guessed in time that this would turn into a rich dinner and a continuation of the "wine tasting"...

It was one of those days that kept our livers and constitutions busy for the whole next day, but which we would not want to miss under any circumstances. Giorgio's wife Cristina has long since got used to this bundle of energy of a husband. She desperately wants a nicer house, but has long since given up hope of that and has resigned herself to the fact that all the money always flows back into the business. When Giorgio suggested she have a fourth child, she refused for fear that Giorgio might - these are her words - have it baptised Raboso...

From blended to niche wine

It is not easy for Raboso to be a red wine. More than half of the grapes are made into rosato. In the not too distant past, it was often used to make fruit juices because of its high tartaric acid content. After a very short maceration period, the must was separated from the skins, the grape skins were frozen and exported to Holland, for example, where the red grape dye was used to colour fruit jellies, confectionery and medicines.

Raboso was once the predominant variety in the Piave plain, but since the 1980s its cultivation has declined rapidly as the demand for blended wines dwindled and the cultivation of grapes of other varieties - above all Merlot and Prosecco - became more profitable. Prosecco in particular is to blame for the fact that Raboso is slowly becoming a fossil. For here, in the plains of the province of Treviso, most of what floods the world as cheap Prosecco is produced. The calculation for the winegrowers is simple: for a kilo of Prosecco grapes they get 55 cents from the wineries, for a kilo of Raboso around 30 cents.

Today, 520 hectares of Raboso vines are still grown in the province of Treviso, where the DOC Piave is located, and around seven million litres of wine are produced (of which only 10% is DOC). This is nothing compared to Merlot (40 million lt.) or Prosecco (almost 90 million lt. without DOCG). The conclusion "Raboso out, Prosecco in" was not the only consequence for all winegrowers in recent years. For some, it was painful to throw all wine traditions overboard for the sake of profit; they know that the identity of the Piave wine-growing region stands and falls with Raboso. These are the winegrowers we are talking about here.

The history of Raboso goes back to the 15th century. Antonio Bonotto (Bonotto delle Tezze) tells us: "In the past, Raboso was called 'vin da viajo' (travelling wine) because it kept particularly well due to its high acidity. This characteristic had made Raboso the most successful wine of the time. Other wines spoiled quickly during transport. Venice itself was an important market for Raboso. In those days, a few centuries ago, the per capita consumption in Venice is said to have been around 300 litres of wine per year! Wine was more hygienic than water because of its alcohol and acidity, so the demand for Raboso was high. With the decline of the Republic of Venice, the fame of Raboso also declined. Despite everything, we have records that show Raboso accounted for 90 per cent of production in the Piave area until the 1930s."

The DOC Piave extends over large parts of the province of Treviso deep into the province of Venice. The historic Raboso growing area is located on the left bank of the Piave River and goes from Oderzo via Tezze di Piave, San Polo di Piave to Mareno di Piave. In the past, Raboso was mainly used for blending other grape varieties. Bonotto: "Delivery notes from that time prove that my family sold Raboso to Siena and Poggibonsi. Because of its colour intensity and high acidity, it was often blended with Sangiovese to make Chianti."

After the Second World War, the area under Raboso declined steadily because there was no longer any demand for it. The market demanded more pleasing, rounder wines, especially Merlot. So Raboso had to give way to Merlot and Prosecco. The mild Merlot was more popular as a red wine than the austere Raboso, which depended on a long ageing period, and much higher grape prices were paid for the Prosecco than for the latter. Gradually, the old Raboso vineyards were replaced by international or white grape varieties. Some winegrowing families, however, continued to cultivate the difficult variety and vinify it single-vineyard. However, Raboso was dependent on ageing in wooden barrels. Raboso was only considered ready to drink after at least six or seven years.

Antonio Bonotto (Bonotto delle Tezze) comes from an old winegrowing family and today presides over the Piave appellation as consortium president: "The Piave wine protection consortium was founded as early as 1959, even before the introduction of the DOC, which did not come into force until 1971. Originally, the DOC Piave included only four grape varieties: Verduzzo, Tocai, Merlot and Cabernet. Raboso, which we consider our most important wine today, only received DOC status in 1982. At that time, it didn't have its own identity as the wine of origin, because most of it went to other regions in tankers."

Bonotto - who knows more about his appellation than anyone else - explains: "Today, 250,000 tonnes of grapes are produced annually in the Piave region. However, only eleven percent of them are DOC grapes. Raboso itself accounts for only ten per cent of that." The percentage of DOC wine mentioned by Bonotto will increase with the 2009 vintage, however, because the former IGT Prosecco is now included in the statistics as a DOC wine.But this Raboso remnant also has a hard time. It is no longer processed into fruit juice and blended wine, but large quantities are sacrificed to Rosato production. Rosato is in demand and can be marketed just a few months after the grape harvest.

Sergio Luca, president of Cantina di Tezze: "Our winery vinifies around 10 000 tonnes of grapes every autumn. Of these, only about seven percent are Raboso. However, almost half of them are pressed immediately and made into Rosato. Raboso Rosato is very popular because the high acidity suits it well." In total, more than 60 per cent of the Raboso grapes in the production area are processed into Rosato. Market demand determines grape prices, and these in turn directly influence the winegrowers' choice of varieties. Sergio Luca (CS Tezze): "We pay around 0.30 euros per kilo for Raboso DOC grapes. For Merlot and Cabernet, however, we only get 0.20 euros per kilo, because nobody wants Merlot anymore. For Raboso, demand is slowly rising again.

Prosecco, however, is a money machine! For a kilo of Prosecco, the farmers get almost twice as much as for Raboso. With these price differences, how are we supposed to convince the farmers that it would be wiser to plant Raboso instead of Prosecco? How are we supposed to stop them from jumping on the Prosecco bandwagon?" From the farmers' point of view, it is understandable that they try to get as much out of their land as possible. Because according to Sergio Luca, a winegrower has to earn at least 5000 euros per hectare to cover his costs. The yields for IGT wines are high and can theoretically go up to 20, 25 tonnes. However, since grape prices are very low, the maximum permitted yield would have to be achieved in full if production is not to cost more than it brings in.

The average yield per hectare of IGT-Raboso, however, is only 14 tonnes, which results in an income per hectare of only about 4000 euros. The situation for the grape suppliers of the DOC-Raboso is much worse: The average yield per hectare is 7100 kg, the grape price is 30 cents/kg. It is therefore completely uninteresting for winegrowers without self-marketing to declare their Raboso as a DOC wine and to do without half the quantity in return, as long as at least twice as much is not paid for DOC grapes as for IGT grapes. The ex-IGT Prosecco alone currently yields good earnings per hectare: 17 tonnes/hectare, remunerated at 60 cents/kg!

Here Raboso can be red wine again

Antonio Bonotto (Bonotto delle Tezze): "In the last 15 years, something has changed in the minds of the winegrowers. Since the beginning of the 1990s, serious attempts have been made to give Raboso a new lease of life and to tie in with old traditions. In particular, Giorgio Cecchetto and Gigi Peruzzetto of Casa Roma have begun to reinterpret the Raboso. They have always believed in it and invested in this variety. However, they did not want to settle for the stubborn wine that had been produced for decades, but worked towards a contemporary Raboso in the vineyard and cellar. As a result, the consortium also became more committed to Raboso, and today almost all the winegrowers are working together to make Raboso the flagship of our appellation. Of course, there are big differences between the winegrowers. There are traditionalists and innovators. But we all agree that Raboso is the history and also the future of the Piave region."

"My father had always pushed to replace Raboso with other varieties. In his opinion, no one wanted it anymore," says Gigi Peruzzetto (Casa Roma), "yet I left the variety, I was always fascinated by its distinct character. For most people here, it was either a blending wine or the base wine for a simple rosé frizzante. The red wine had fallen into oblivion. I am a traditionalist and do not add dried grapes to wine. To get more roundness and concentration, I harvest the grapes as late as possible. And, of course, Raboso doesn't age in barrique for us, but in large wooden barrels."

Emanuela Bincoletto (Tessère): "We always agreed to communicate Raboso together, but when it became concrete, we didn't have the courage. Mainly because we all had a different idea of the Raboso. Today it is almost too late, we should have agreed ten years ago. Some of us are traditionalists, others have more commercial success in mind. There will never be just one style. Some want to bring Raboso closer to international tastes, others want to preserve its character and rough charm."

In San Polo di Piave stands the Gambrinus. More than a restaurant, it is an institution with special significance for the Piave appellation and for Raboso in particular. Since the middle of the 18th century, the Zanotto family has run the Osteria Gambrinus, today also a restaurant, winery and locanda. Gianmaria Zanotto is responsible for wine production and the Elisir Gambrinus (wine-based aperitif/digestive liqueur): "For our family, the Raboso has been an asset for generations, which we have communicated and upheld far from any fashion trends, also because it has been the basis of our Elisir since 1848. Until the 1980s, Raboso was abused as a blending wine, its image was destroyed. More recently, Raboso has been taken seriously again here."

Antonio Bonotto: "Raboso has grown together with the winegrowers. It changed a lot in the 1980s. You can see this very clearly at vertical tastings. It has become softer and more accessible. There are several reasons for this: better knowledge of the variety and oenological advances." In 1994, Bonotto, together with the Conegliano Research Institute, planted one hectare with Raboso, the vines of which he had taken from old plants throughout the production area. His aim was to prevent old Raboso clones from dying out. Because many old Raboso vineyards were cleared at the time and planted with other varieties. Bonotto has secured the genetic heritage of Raboso with his vineyard.

Since 2002, Giorgio Cecchetto has been maintaining an experimental vineyard (1.5 hectares) in collaboration with the same research institute and the universities of Udine and Padova, with 54 different combinations of different Raboso clones growing on different rootstocks and with different vine training forms and vine spacing. As far as possible, a lot has been done here to create the basis for a comeback for Raboso.

Taming the unruly

Producing a pure red wine from Raboso today is like a balancing act. To bottle it in all its rustic, wild glory - as a "touring wine" - would be pointless, because wines with such an extreme taste cannot be sold. So the Raboso has to be tamed somehow, but without stripping away its identity too much. In the past, it was stored for years and made mellow in this way. A current example is a fourteen-year-old Raboso in Giorgio Cechetto's cellar, still waiting to be bottled in the large wooden barrel. "I still have 6000 litres of 1996 that I somehow forgot to bottle. The wine is so special that I want to keep it for my children. It has been maturing in this barrel for years now and is wonderful. A great Raboso!"

Ornella Molon: "No one claims that Raboso is a simple wine. For sure, the first contact with it is rather one of timid enthusiasm. But you can't treat a Raboso in the cellar like a Merlot. Then you ruin it, you take away its personality. Of course we try to tame it, and with today's technology and the knowledge that our ancestors didn't have, we also manage to make a more pleasant wine. However, it will always remain special, and that is a good thing."

Florian von Stepski Doliwa (Rechsteiner): "I am an opponent of the modern Raboso that have emerged in recent years. The Raboso is not a round wine, it is angular and its character simply belongs to it." Antonio Bonotto: "No dried grapes go into my Raboso. For that, I put it on the market after four years instead of three."

Giorgio Cecchetto: "If we want to make a good wine with Raboso grapes, we have to understand its characteristics in detail. In the past, farmers harvested the grapes only in November, sometimes even with snow. Today, many harvest it as early as mid-October, which is definitely too early. Because if the Raboso is not fully ripe, it still has an extremely high acidity even after the biological acid degradation."

One way of taming Raboso is to dry out part of the grapes. This method is new and has no traditional background. The winemakers always dried small quantities of grapes, but they made a passito from them and did not use the sweet must to strengthen the Raboso wine. Giorgio Cecchetto was the first to start adding dried grapes to Raboso in the 1990s. The idea for partially drying the grapes came from the Valpolicella region: Sandro Boscaini of Masi had asked Cecchetto in 1996 to dry a certain amount of Raboso grapes for microvinification. Several wines made with this method from all over Italy were subsequently presented at Vinitaly.

Giorgio Cecchetto: "Thanks to this experiment, we started thinking about it in the first place. With the dried grapes, we made the Raboso more concentrated and rounded its edges. At that time, we were not yet able to make such a wine with fresh grapes. We had found a way to get a wine that tastes good to a wider audience more quickly. Today, after almost 15 years of research and experimentation, we have pretty much moved away from the Amarone method again. I, for one, don't see it as the future of Raboso."

Raboso missionary Cecchetto leaves no stone unturned to find the balance in the tightrope walk between varietal typicality and pleasantness. He knows that barrique is not the ideal solution, yet Raboso obviously relies on longer ageing in wood. So he experiments not only in the vineyard and with grape drying, but also with barriques made of different woods. In addition to oak, cherry, acacia, chestnut and mulberry wood are being tested. During our visit, we were allowed to taste the five wines and clearly gave preference to the Raboso from the mulberry barrique. The fact that this unusual wood seems to be the most suitable is also interesting because not only the Raboso but also the mulberry tree was at home in the traditional vineyards.

Quality alone is of little use

Do good and talk about it... This also applies to wine producers. But what if no one understands you?

Slowly, slowly, wine lovers are beginning to show interest in Raboso. It has an original name, sounds unknown and yet it is an autochthonous wine with a history: good prerequisites for creating a small market for itself as an enthusiast's wine. Vittorio Bellussi (Bellussi): "For about ten years, we have felt an increasing interest in Raboso. The work of the consortium is bearing fruit. In the past, no visitor ever asked about Raboso. Today, customers interested in this red wine come regularly, and that makes us happy, of course. Raboso is certainly the future of our appellation."

Gigi Peruzzetto (Casa Roma): "Unfortunately, however, Raboso enthusiasts are presented with a big mess. The wine lover comes here and finds the traditional red Raboso DOC, next to it there is a rounder Raboso with a proportion of dried grapes, then the frizzante version, the Rosato. All this hinders us if we want to proclaim Raboso as a flagship." And now another new wine is to be added: The Malanotte. A Raboso wine with DOCG! Actually, the consortium only wanted to bring order to the range, but risks having the opposite effect. The will to make wines from fresh grapes distinguishable from those with dried grapes is absolutely understandable. When some producers achieved commercial success with "fortified" Raboso, this triggered discussions in the consortium as to whether the production regulations should be changed. The traditional and the new wines were completely different.

President Antonio Bonotto: "Of course, we didn't want to stop the successful development at all. So we had the idea to create a new production regulation. We left the old production rules to the traditional Raboso and created a second, very strict regulation for the Raboso with dried grapes, a kind of Raboso Superiore. This stipulates a proportion of dried grapes of 15 to 30 percent. Each winery must set up a drying chamber and adhere strictly to the regulations on traceability. This also gives me, as consortium president, a certain amount of control over production. In 2008, the new production regulations were approved. The first vintage will be launched in 2011. Like the Raboso, the new one will have to mature in the cellar for three years. At first it was thought to call the new creation Raboso Superiore, but then they changed their minds.

Bonotto: "While the rules were being worked out, we also thought about the name of this wine. We came to the conclusion that we didn't want to call it Raboso Superiore, but rather Piave Malanotte. The experience with Prosecco has shown how difficult it is to protect a wine that bears the name of the grape variety. "The name Malanotte comes from Borgo Malanotte, a hamlet in the middle of the traditional growing area near Tezze di Vazzola. Bonotto: "We have even applied for DOCG and hope that Rome will decide on it as soon as possible." This is all very well meant, but this policy follows a logic that runs counter to the mechanisms of wine communication. We criticise the fact that there is no basic concept on which the goals are set that one wants to achieve with and for Raboso and the Piave appellation. So far, there has been a lot of Raboso junk with different appellations. Now it would be a matter of giving the red DOC wine Raboso, the quality of which the producers are really working on seriously, an appropriate image. But this cannot be done by dividing the wine to be launched into two parts. Malanotte here, Raboso Piave there.

Antonio Bonotto: "The wines of the DOC Piave are mainly drunk here in the Veneto and in Italy. Relatively few are sold abroad. The consortium wants the name Raboso to stand for the DOC Piave abroad. It should become our flagship. Up to now, this has not been the case; the wines we are known for are Prosecco and Pinot grigio. But whenever we have the opportunity, we also present the Raboso to people. We are trying to slowly bring Raboso into the conversation." Although the declared intention is to polish up the reputation of the traditional Raboso, it is being undermined by all means! In the interest of Raboso, one can only hope that the competent authorities in Rome will deny Malanotte the DOCG. Otherwise, how is it to be explained to the wine customer that the Malanotte DOCG is not better than the traditional Raboso DOC, but only different? In order to overflow the barrel of anti-communication, they now want to shorten the ageing period of the traditional Raboso from three to two years. This will finally degrade it to a second wine. The president himself brings his Raboso to the market not after the prescribed three, but after four years...

During our visit to the production area, we hardly met a winegrower who would be interested in this Raboso Superiore or Malanotte. On the contrary, either they reject the use of dried grapes in Raboso altogether or they are anxious to get away from it again. Gigi Peruzzetto (Casa Roma): "Malanotte is a new interpretation of Raboso. The market will decide whether this wine will be a success. I don't think I will produce the Malanotte. I only use dried grapes for the Raboso Passito. As a company, we are traditionalists, and I have supported the Malanotte project on a bureaucratic level, but it does not fit into my company philosophy. Wine drinkers today prefer more elegant wines again, traditional products that move away from the fashion for barrique wines and supertuscans. I don't want to compromise on Raboso, I want it to be the way it is by nature. If you don't like it, you can drink Merlot." Giorgio Cecchetto, whose Raboso Gelsaia is one of the appellation's most successful wines thanks to a proportion of dried grapes, is also considering a step backwards: "At the moment I am still drying some of the grapes for the Gelsaia, but I hope that in a few years I will no longer have to rely on this 'trick', but that my best grapes will then produce the desired concentration without additional help. Although I started with the 'appassimento' back then, the real Raboso shouldn't need it. So I prefer to focus on improving grape quality in the vineyard."

The Raboso-curious wine lover is not only confronted with the fact that there will soon be two competing DOC red wines from this variety, he is confronted in every Italian motorway service station with the fact that red IGT wines are also offered under the Raboso name, even far larger quantities than of the DOC wine. Sergio Luca (CS Tezze): "One problem is that both Raboso IGT and Raboso DOC are on the market. We could have a similar problem to Prosecco in the future. Two wines of different quality with the same name. Consumers are looking at the price. How should we communicate Raboso DOC? We all wish that the demand for the DOC would increase, but as long as the Raboso IGT exists, it will compete with the DOC wine. If we communicate the Raboso DOC, unfortunately the IGT will also profit from it. "The development of Raboso lags 20 years behind Prosecco and could learn a lot from it. At some point, the situation in Conegliano-Valdobbiadene got out of hand. Only success shows whether a designation system is good or fails under strain: when Prosecco became fashionable, IGT production spoiled the market and ruined prices.

The winegrowers in the classic production area had to find a solution and unceremoniously renamed the grape variety Glera last year. But actually they should have reacted much earlier, because what was done to save the DOC Prosecco was actually an act of violence on the edge of legality, which only succeeded because the current Minister of Agriculture comes from this region. In the case of Raboso, it would still be possible to intervene in the designation of wine and grape varieties without causing great damage. If the Raboso actually achieves the hoped-for commercial breakthrough, it would be too late for such interventions. It is a pity, but the Raboso is completely unprepared for a possible success. When consumers have to choose between Malanotte, Raboso Piave DOC and Raboso IGT, they will take the IGT in case of doubt because it is the cheapest. If the Malanotte becomes reality, the traditional Raboso DOC will be hopelessly torn between the better image of the Malanotte DOCG and the better price of the Raboso IGT.

Not a good sign for the Piave Raboso appellation is the grape price, which at 30 cents per kilo is not only low, but hardly different from that of the IGT Raboso (28 cents/kg). This only means that the market is unable to distinguish between IGT and DOC wines. The curse of varietal wines also affects Raboso. The Raboso customer cannot tell the difference between the more demanding DOC Raboso and an IGT Raboso from a production of up to 19.2 tonnes per hectare. Because the wine name is practically the same. The neighbours of Valdobbiadene solved the problem in time with a magic wand and simply gave their variety a new name. However, they will not succeed in declaring Raboso to be the name of the region, as their colleagues from Prosecco have done, because the magic wand (read: Minister of Agriculture Luca Zaia) no longer works since Brussels took over the command of the European designations of origin. The only thing left to do is to change the name of the wine. Piave, for example. But to do that, all the other varieties would first have to disappear from the Piave DOC.

If we had to determine the fate of the Piave appellation, we would leave only the traditional Raboso under this name and pave its way to success with strict production regulations. 14 tonnes per hectare is about five tonnes too much...

What has the appellation got to lose if it takes its courage in both hands and does for Raboso exactly what should be done? Very little! Because the area under cultivation of the DOC Raboso has reached a low of 110 hectares, from which it can only go up (Raboso IGT: 460 ha). The economically significant varieties are Merlot with 3200 hectares (DOC and IGT), Prosecco with 5100 hectares (DOC = ex-IGT) or Pinot grigio with 2400 hectares (DOC and IGT). With a consistent crackdown, no critical balances would be affected, but only the only autochthonous wine of the region would be given a chance. At least the danger posed by the great confusion seems to have been correctly assessed. Antonio Bonotto: "We are working on a joint project with the consortia of the DOC Lison Pramaggiore and Montello. Our appellations protect DOC wines such as Pinot grigio, Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet with yields of around 12,000 kilos per hectare. These will never be wines that cause a sensation in the world because of their excellent quality. Our plan now is to unite the three DOCs into one in terms of international grape varieties. We are still working on a name for this wide DOC for international varieties. Unified, we have better chances on the market, and there is no question of origin character for these wines anyway. So we could delete these international grape varieties from the DOC Piave. Raboso Tradizionale, Raboso Passito and Malanotte would remain in the DOC Piave. In addition, DOC Piave would still include Carmenère and Manzoni Bianco."

Merum readers know how we feel about this: one wine region - one appellation - one wine! No Carmenère and no Manzoni bianco (Rhine Riesling x Pinot Blanc, one of the breeding successes of the researcher Luigi Manzoni from the 1930s). But no Malanotte either!

The winegrowers and the consortium are (quite) convinced of the Raboso's chances and invest (quite) a lot in its future. To accuse them of half-heartedness would be unfair, but one misses uncompromisingness. The unwillingness to compromise that has led the Franciacorta appellation to success, for example. There, too, reds and whites are produced alongside sparkling wine. At first, producers banned themselves from producing tank-fermented spumante, then they gave their still wines a different name. Today Franciacorta means only one thing: Metodo Classico!

Raboso is an endangered representative of Italian wine culture. It is fortunate that it is preserved and cultivated with respect and dedication by a number of winegrowers. For us wine lovers, Raboso - beyond personal taste preferences - is a priority. Even if we might like a slightly toasty, round Merlot better, this is neither to be judged as original nor as having more value beyond its consumption value. It is reproducible everywhere and stands only for itself and the bravura of its maker. Traditional wines are incomparably more demanding in this respect; they can only be produced in certain growing regions and according to certain rules. And even then, only where a winemaker does not put himself in the foreground, but the identity of the wine. These wines not only have stories to tell, they embody history.

The Merum editorial team recognises as its pleasant task not only to take a critical look at well-known wine regions for its readers, but with equal priority to shed light on appellations that for some reason have fallen into oblivion or fail to make themselves known beyond regional borders. This cross-bred wine from the eastern Veneto is one of them.

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