The Half-whites

There are some white varietals, especially in Italy, which are rich in polyphenols that represent territories and traditions is a different way than through their aromatic recognizability.

Vorrei la pelle nera (I want black skin) was a song by Nino Ferrer, an Italo-French singer famous in the 1970s. In the lyrics, he asked great blues and R&B artists Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett and James Brown why he could not sing the way they did and then concluded himself that it was because of the color of his skin. Thus he wanted to be black.

Are there, in the world of wine, some white varietals that try to “sing the blues”? Apparently so and they are often made from native Italian varieties of grapes or those that have long-adapted to Italian soil and which are not distinguished for being aromatic, for having intensely fruit aromas, but for their wealth of almost red-grape polyphenols. Some of these are even fermented “on the skins”, creating some very interesting orange wines.

One that first comes to mind is Albana, which is almost an emblematic example of a white varietal that has these characteristics. This is thanks also to its very resistant skin which responds well to being raisinated and to botrytis which results in some extraordinary and important sweet wines, like those of Fattoria Zerbina, just to cite an example. Other varietals of this kind include Greco di Tufo, probably, then Friulano and perhaps even Timorasso and Vitovska from Karst and Verdicchio.

But these are just a few off the top of my head and I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few. The reason why, in my opinion, these varietals and the wines they make are so interesting is because, at times, they go “beyond the fruit”, because they are not so immediately recognizable due to the “simple” traits of the grape, because they represent territories and winemaking traditions and “feel” their origins in that way.

This is perhaps a precise way to appreciate the value of a terroir, not the only one but one that is very Italian because Italy is home to many grape varieties that correspond to the description I sought to make.

They are, if you want, half-whites the way singers like Tom Waits, Joe Cocker, Pino Daniele and Mia Martini, are half-black and great in their own way.