Wine & books: The Vines of San Lorenzo by Edward Steinberg

Edward Steinberg’s Sorì San Lorenzo is not fresh from the press, but it is a fascinating book for wine lovers. Talking about a specific vine and family, of love for quality and peasant wisdom.

It is about the effort and the passion that guide the creation of a great wine. Tells about a vine deeply connected with the land, revealing its secrets. Because vine and soil are complementary, at that moment the wine become poetry.

A challenging book to read. I lingered for a long time before starting to read this book, leaving it on the shelves of the library for months before opening it.

Perhaps because it was given to me personally by Angelo Gaja, on a mystical October day in Barbaresco. So, for me it was more a relic than a reading.

The fact that it was printed and distributed by the Gaja distribution, I confess, did not play in his favour. It will be that we Italians are led to think badly, I feared it would come about in a simple apology for the cellar.

But at the end of the first chapter, I felt the land of the Langa again under my feet and the Nebbiolo in my blood. So, I regretted not opening it earlier.

Opinion: it is a good book, sometimes its style is a bit chaotic. Too many fancy flights and dubious narrative expedients. Despite this, it is so full of interesting insights that it is worth reading.

Biography of Gaja’s or of a wine?

The wine in object is the Barbaresco, Piedmonts’ excellence in the world. The Sorì is the dialectal name by which, in the Langhe, we mean the vineyards exposed to the sun of the south.

Sorì San Lorenzo talks about the birth of a great wine, as explained by Edward Steinberg, the author of the book, a professor at Harvard University. So much a lover of our country that he chose it as his permanent home.

So, let us talk about the biography of a specific wine, coming from a very specific cru. The excellence of a product that takes shape in our mind, page after page, story after story.

 

The history of a territory and its peasant culture

The book that begins by talking about people, of the members of the Gaja family, of course, but also of farmers, grandparents, helpers, winemakers.

In the background, the Langhe, an area dedicated to viticulture par excellence. Not as we see the land now, but as they were in the time of Giovanni Gaja, the founder of the farm.

For those who do not have Piedmonts’ origins, it is difficult to imagine the vineyards in the period after World War II. The wheat grown in the middle of the rows, the worthless wine, the expensive soil abandoned to neglect and the animals grazing among the vineyards.

Yet, it was just like that. Knowing this story makes us even more the value of those winemakers. The actors who played a fundamental role in the revolution of the perception of Italian wine in the world. His Barbaresco wine and the Sorì San Lorenzo changed the rules.

This is the story of an extraordinary rise, consecrated in 1991 when, in the hall of the New York Wine Experience, the standing audience acclaims Angelo Gaja’s Barbaresco.

Giovanni’s great-grandson, along with a few others, had succeeded in re-evaluating the drink homeland on an international level. Italian wine, until that moment, had been considered a B series product.

What is the reason for this success? The study and perseverance, but also an uncommon courage. The courage to want to innovate, modernize and internationalize wine. And this is undoubtedly thanks to the personality of those who thought about wine with a specific goal.

The voice of the workers.

So, let us go to the vineyard, on that portion of the hill, near the village of Barbaresco, called Sorì San Lorenzo. A vineyard exposed in a particular way, different from all the others. With its rows that cut the hill horizontally, the leaves of a different colour from the adjacent plots.

The vine Nebbiolo grows on the San Lorenzo vineyard. A vine so intimately connected to its cru that it fully legitimizes an essay dedicated to the birth of a wine.

The voice of the winemakers, of those who have been working on these lands for years, with these vines, leads us to discover the mechanisms and intuitions. Mixed with knowledge, passion creates the intimate relationship between man and nature.

The idea of ​​giving a voice to the workers, the ones who create a great wine by controlling every single phase, is excellent. This narrative expedient that, if on the one hand it helps us get into real work in the vineyard or in the cellar, on the other it seems to give the subjects an almost metaphysical aura. Perhaps too much.

Despite this, the production phases of this great wine are made intelligible as if we had spent two years hidden in the cellar of Gaja observing these men (and women) at work.

The birth of a great wine has nothing miraculous.

A great wine comes from an obsessive search for excellence, the Sorì San Lorenzo as well.

Starting from the project of ​​the wine, the choice of soil, rootstocks and farming techniques are determined. The composition of the cru and how this will affect the expression of the varietal characteristics of the grapes.

Everything, from the choices of cultivation, pruning, monitoring of chemical ripeness, to the time of harvest, will have an effect. From harvesting techniques to the choice of cellar practices. From the selection of the wood in which to raise the wine, to that of the shape and type of the bottle, up to the cork stopper.

All this contributes to obtaining the excellence. But nothing will affect the quality of the vintage like the action of Mother Nature. The climatic conditions that make a wine great in one vintage rather than another.

This little novel-treatise is therefore a real journey, in a particular year, to create an exceptional wine.

Impossible not to combine this book with a glass of Barbaresco.

The Nebbiolo is the only vine allowed by the specification to produce Barbaresco DOCG in the classic and reserve version.

It is a difficult grape variety, comparable in its sensitivity only to Pinot Noir. Nebbiolo is one of the most important Italian indigenous grape varieties. 100% Nebbiolo grapes to produce Barolo, Carema, Nebbiolo d’Alba wines.

Blend of Nebbiolo with other vines to produce other important wines from Piedmont and Valtellina.

The production area includes Barbaresco, Neive and Treiso all in the province of Cuneo, Piedmont. As we have already understood the origin of the grapes totally conditions the final expression of the wine.

The wines from the hills of Barbaresco and Neive are characterized by great structure, fullness, and tannic power, balanced by roundness. They are extraordinarily rich in fruity scents and endowed with extreme finesse.

Wines produced from grapes from the hills of Treiso are more linked to finesse and elegance than to structure.

Moreover, every single area has portions of vineyards characterized by soils in unique compositions and exposed to different climatic agents.

The varied territorial zoning has therefore given rise to almost eighty different types of Barbaresco, which are expressed in “additional mentions” shown on the label.

To become Barbaresco DOCG, Nebbiolo must be aged for at least 26 months, of which 9 months in wood. The Superiore denomination, on the other hand, requires at least 50 months of aging, of which at least 9 in wood.

Barbaresco is a magnificent wine.

Its important structure gives expression power and exciting sensations.

The colour is garnet red with ruby ​​reflections. The wine prefers long refinements, after which it shows a light colour, turning to orange.

The olfactory notes are complex, broad, and persistent, decidedly exciting. Rose, violet, geranium, wildflowers, cherry, apple, fresh and dehydrated peach, vanilla, and cinnamon. The fruity and floral of youth turns with refinement towards more fascinating and spicy ethereal notes.

The taste is at the same time gentle and robust. The power is refined and refined with aging.

In combination with food, it expresses its full potential. Exceptional with roasts, game, grilled meat, as well as stewed meat. Aged cheeses, white truffles, mushrooms, and autumn vegetables. Legume soups find a formidable ally in Barbaresco.

In short, a peasant wine that amazes us with the elegance of a refined gentleman.

Read this article in Italian Language @cronacheletterarie