Italian Grapes in America

I love Italian wines. The French put the snobbery in wine and the Italians put the love into it.    Honestly, I do think the French are historically better at winemaker. The following are some notes of wineries producing Italian style wines in America that I have tasted over the last few years.

Italian varietals have been popping up all over America—for a lot longer then we might have realized. In the last few years, Zinfandel has been linked to the Italian varietal primitivo which has been thought to be indigenous to Croatia. The history is still open for much debate.  Zinfandel is planted all over Sonoma County, especially in the Dry Creek Valley.  When Italian immigrants came to California, they settled this area and planted many of the grape clippings they brought with them. There are some zinfandel vineyards in Sonoma that are century old. The "Jackass Vineyard" of Martinelli Winery is probably the oldest at about 130 years. Another great Italian winery in Sonoma is Seghesio. They produce great zinfandels as well as a sangiovese blends.

Two wineries in Santa Barbara County that produce Italian varietals are Palmina and Clendenen Family. Both do an outstanding nebbiolo. The Clendenen Family produces one that can easily be mistaken for a Barolo. Palmina produces a pinot grigio that is clean, crisp, and with lots of minerality. Palmina also produces some more of the obscure Italian varietals like dolcetto and arneis.  Clendenen Family produces an old school Friuli varietal called tocai friulano.

There are some really neat Super Tuscan styles being produced in the mountains of Arizona. Arizona Stronghold and Dos Cabezas are producing blends of sangiovese and cabernet sauvignon. They have also successfully grown the white varietal malvasia.

Winemaker Luca Paschina of Barboursville Vineyards has been producing Italian style wines in Virginia for over twenty years. He is a classically trained Piedmontese winemaker, his family has been producing wines in Italy for several generations. He makes a great nebbiolo, barbera, and pinot grigio.

Check out these wineries for some Italian style wines:
www.martinelliwinery.com
www.seghesio.com
www.palminawines.com
www.aubonclimat.com/  (Clendenen Family)
www.azstronghold.com
www.doscabezaswinery.com
www.barboursvillewine.net