Italian Varietals Are Plentiful in Temecula Wine Country – Part V -- The Vermentino Grape - By: vlcarticle

The article today is covering a fantastic crispy and acidic grape varietal Vermentino (pronounced ver-mehn-TEE-noh), again from Italy.

The most well known Italian Vermentino is from northern Italy as well as the island of Sardinia. Vermentino is also the most highly harvested white grape on this island of Corsica, upon high altitude and hot climate vineyards make bountiful full-bodied wines with heady floral aromas. Some say that Vermentino is most likely similar to the Malvasia grape.

In this article we will discuss an additional one of these newly appearing Italian varietals in Temecula Valley Wine Country. Vermentino is not commonly harvested within the United States. The first vineyard supplier that gave us the cuttings to be grafted to root stock is located in Paso Robles at the Tablas Creek Winery.

Tablas Creek brought several cuttings in from Italy and entered the cuttings into quarantine at the USDA station in Geneva, New York. Then in 1993, they were announced virus free and released to Tablas Creek. The cuttings are sold through nurseries, such as NovaVine in Santa Rosa which has sole rights to propagate and sell their Tablas Creek Vineyard Selections (TCVS), to vineyards throughout the United States. In fact, one of the bottles of wine that President Omaha presented to the Italian President Napolitano currently was a United States harvested Vermentino. Specifically the wine that was given as a token originated from a Vermentino vineyard in North Carolinas Yadkin Valley harvested by Raffaldini Vineyards.

Vermentino is growing in notability between vineyard managers due to the grape being a vigorous grower, resilient to low rainfall, and normally ripens towards the middle of the harvest cycle.

Wines made from Vermentino tend to be a pale straw color and relatively low in alcohol. The wines are generally crisp, dry and have a pronounced minerality. Flavors of green apple and lime are normal.

The wines crispness creates a tasty accompaniment to fresh seafood, oysters on the half shell or grilled Mediterranean vegetables.

Here in the Temecula Valley, Vermentino is available in limited quantities as an estate wine at Cougar Vineyard & Winery found at 39870 De Portola Road. The grapes are head pruned and also cordon trained. This wine is 100% varietal and finished extremely dry with hints of lemongrass. This winery resides on the De Portola Wine Trail of Temecula Wine Country. Cougar Vineyard & Winery has harvested {three year old vines on the vineyards in Temecula Wine Country. Also growing Vermentino in Temecula Wine Country is a newly harvested vineyard found at Ponte Family Estate. They are situated at 35053 Rancho California Road in Temecula Wine Country. Locate this varietal on Pontes tasting room menu in a few years. Cougar Vineyard & Winery and Ponte Family Estate are both members of the Temecula Valley Winegrowers Association.

Cougar Vineyard & Winery is harvested completely in Italian varietals with two thousand of the eighty five hundred vines harvested being Vermentino. We will be reviewing all of these other varietals planted by Cougar in future articles about the Italian grape varietals grown in Temecula Wine Country of Southern California.

About the Author

Rick Buffington is the CEO of Cougar Temecula Winery. This small boutique is a favorite stop for Temecula Wine Tasting. Next time you visit the Temecula wineries, check out Cougar Winery. Our web address is http://CougarVineyards.com and phone number is (951) 303-3969.

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