The Italians have unfairly laid claim to this refreshing white wine, argues the Telegraph’s wine correspondent Victoria Moore, but you can find plenty of delicious French examples.
A couple of decades back, Italian wine producers landed on a cunning way to create a monopoly for themselves on sparkling wine made from a grape that was rapidly becoming extremely successful. The name of that grape was prosecco. Except, from 2009, it wasn’t. The Italian Minister for Agriculture declared the prosecco grape must no longer be called prosecco: henceforth, its name would be (pause for fanfare) glera, a little-used and not-tremendously-appealing synonym. And so it was.
The EU was persuaded to agree. The word prosecco became protected, in law, as the name of a sparkling wine produced in specific regions of northeast Italy. It meant winemakers beyond those boundaries could no longer bottle a wine made from (what used to be called) prosecco and put prosecco on the label. It was a breathtaking piece of politicking.
Then the Italians did it again. This time the grape in question was vermentino, which is sometimes also known as pigato (in Liguria in northern Italy), favorita (in Piedmont, also in northern Italy) and rolle (in southern France). It was as sonorous vermentino, though, that this white grape was beginning to gather a following.
Wines made from vermentino are light and refreshing, in the gently aromatic aperitif — or should that be aperitivo? — style that is very fashionable. They have subtle notes of grass, hay and herbs (like fresh bay) with citrus that is gentle — refreshing enough, but not with the vim of, say, sauvignon blanc. They can lean towards a stony minerality or white peach, but the note I most often find is a sort of leafy floral.
Vermentino is found all along and near the Mediterranean coastlines of France and Italy, from the Languedoc through Provence, up in Piedmont, in Liguria, and also on the French and Italian (respectively) islands of Corsica and Sardinia. According to the oracle on all matters grape, a book called Wine Grapes by Robinson, Harding and Vouillamoz, vermentino is more widely planted in France than in Italy. Also according to Wine Grapes, vermentino is the primary name, rather than a synonym, of the grape.
So it felt very hard, if not outright unfair, on French winemakers, many of whom had been selling wine under the vermentino name for years, when the EU agreed to a request from Italian producers to protect the name vermentino, effectively banning its use on wines made in France from the 2022 vintage. I understand there are discussions in progress to possibly reverse this edict, although no producer I contacted wanted to speak on the record for fear of messing things up.
For the moment, the easiest way to buy French vermentino is as part of a blend — it’s often bottled with other Mediterranean grapes like grenache blanc and viognier. If you want to try the pure form, I like Château d’Estoublon Roseblood 2023, Coteaux d’Aix en Provence. From the Provence estate part-owned by Carla Bruni, it’s made — not that you’d know from the label — entirely from vermentino/rolle that combines bitter notes of lemon peel with a spicy galangal flavour and a lift of meadow flowers.
I’m an even bigger fan of the more subtle Domaine Torraccia 2022, Porto Vecchio, Corsica, recommended recently in this spot. There’s a decent, cheaper Italian version — Expressions Vermentino 2022, Sardinia, made by Sella & Mosca and reminiscent of pears and hay.
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