In search of the true Bardolino

 

What is it about our obsession with Bardolino? Early on in our wine-drinking days we loved the unpretentiousness and business-like quality of these wines which rarely disappointed. Now the majority of them do.

As we have speculated previously, it seems that the problem is that producers are trying to beef their wines up to resemble their Valpolicella half-siblings. Valpolicella is the base wine for Amarone. The Amarone business is big and profitable enough to support investment in Valpolicella in a way Bardolino lacks. 

At the same time, the world-wide drive towards more powerful, more extracted wines leads Bardolino producers to stray from their blueprint with other grapes, notably Cabernet Sauvignon getting into the mix to stiffen Bardo's backbone. It started with Guerrieri Rizzardi and no doubt others and now here we are with Bardolino no longer recognisable = at least to us - compared with what it was before.

At the 'For the Love of Wine' table at SITT in London in February this year we found a Bardolino we could identify with. Lenotti's Bardolino Classico.

For the Love of Wine import Lenotti

For once the back label is apposite;

E il vino piu adatto per uso quotidiano: facile da bere, si presta a tutte le occasioni. E per noi il prodotto piu "antico" e rappresentativo: lo produciamo infatti da 100 anni e ci ha fatto conoscere in tutto il mondo. Prodotto dai nostri vigneti sulle rive a est del nostro lago con uve Corvina, Rondinella e altre tipiche della zona del Bardolino e un vino rosso secco, fruttato fresco e delicato che accompagna egregiamente primi piatti, carni bianchi, pizza, formaggi e pesce....

For us the following words leap out of this description which should apply to Bardolino in general;

Quotidiano

Facile da bere

si presta a tutte le occasioni

fresco e delicato

Pesce.

We agree particularly with the idea that Bardolino can be drunk with fish. That has been our independent experience for a long time already. Can you say that about Valpolicella?

Lenotti are a bit coy about the other varieties that go into their wine apart from Corvina (65%) and Rondinella (25%) with the last 10% being made up from the other typical grapes of the zone of Bardolino. The well-established wine merchant Evington's of Leicester (1926) confidently state that Molinara is the other grape in Lenotti's Bardolino although no one else goes that far. D'Agata is a big fan of Molinara which he says adds freshness, lightness and a strong saline note to Amarone, Bardolino and Valpolicella.

According to the invaluable Enoteca Italiana's small but mighty 'Tutto Vino, guida completa ai vini d'Italia, the Bardolino appellation permits the following varieties to make up no more than 20% of the blend as well as Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara, each one limited to a maximum of 10%

Corvinone

Rossignola

Barbera

Sangiovese

Marzemino

Merlot

Cabernet Sauvignon

Strange there is one variety missing here; Negrara. D'Agata's 'Native Wine Grapes of Italy' sets the record straight;

'Negrara Veronese...Most often,,,is used in the wines of Bardolino but the percentage is too low to draw any conclusions about the variety.

Looking back in Slotovino, there haven't been many Bardolinos to shout about. These producers have caught our eye 

Villabella

Montechi

Recchia

Gorgo

and also producers of Bardolino Novello such as Raval, the Cantina di Custoza and Costadoro.

But this Lenotti Bardolino Classico will do very nicely until we can add to the list.

Robert - 'Robby' Steel importer of Lenotti's Bardolino