Vermentino

A native of various Italian Tyrrhenian regions, but also of Corsica, the southern French coast and other maritime regions of the world, the Vermentino is actually a, even if unsuspecting, international vine. There are few vines, in fact, which can so ably interpret the terroir in a multi-faceted way, adapting to soils and climates, even if usually Mediterranean, at various levels of richness and maturation. In Italy, Vermentino is typical of Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia. The constants, generally, are a slender body, fragrant minerality and good flavour. But in every Vermentino there is much more.

In the Riviera di Levante, towards the Colli di Luni, where it matures well, it has an aromatic structure and warmth, with beautiful fruity notes of peach. In Tuscany, along the coast and in the Bolgherese, there is breadth, olfactory complexity, mineral richness, an incredible completeness of the terroir. In Sardinia there is the sharp verticality of the soil, the savoury and unmistakable minerality of the sea.

A champion of summer pairings, Vermentino accompanies the traveller along some of the most famous beaches in Italy. Unbeatable with seafood, in the most complex versions, sometimes even refined, it should be tried with succulent first courses, filled pasta and main courses of white meat. A vine of uncertain origins (perhaps the Iberian Peninsula, according to some even Madeira) and the rather obscure etymology, Vermentino, apparently so slender and frank, has in reality a thousand faces.