In search of Nero Buono

 Our post dated 21.10.10:

The only known facts about Nero Buono seem to be that it is rarely found, that it comes from the area around a place called Cori and that it is "used as a blending-component in the red Cori DOC. The grape is said to add good colour, concentration and tannins to the blend. With this grape added the wines ability to age increases." The London merchant Slurp has a version from Poggio le Volpi. Their website says "The Poggio le Volpi estate was established in the 1990s by Felice Mergé. The vineyards are situated in Frascati (Lazio). This is an elegant and velvety wine with a lingering finish showing aromas of berries, chocolate, liquorice and coffee in the background." £21.60. Our version was considerably cheaper quite understandably. It seems a pattern is emerging in our discoveries of worthwhile new grapes. So many have been used to add colour or body to blends. We only have to think of Alicante Bouschet, Persan, Ancelotta etc. We have similar hopes for Nero Buono.

 

A supermarket shelf in Rome in 2010 with Cantina Cincinnato's range of Nero Buono

 

D'Agata calls it 'an up and coming variety' and also 'Nero Buono is one of Italy's least-known native grape varieties, but as is often the case, one that has a lot to say...the fact is that Nero Buono ...can be the source of excellent, midweight red wines.'

In 2010 we wrote 'Winesearcher Pro gives only two sources of Nero Buono wines currently available in the UK.' Today there are still only two entries. One actually because both are for the same wine, the Lepino by Giangirolami (see below).

 

 

In 2010 we had bought this bottle of Nero Buono di Cori at Enoteca Costantini in Rome having never heard of the variety. It lay abandoned at the back of a cupboard for over a decade. When we finally got around to opening it expectations were not high. However the experience was quite wonderful and remained with us until the day a new trip to Rome came up in May 2025. Instead of fondling every bottle in sight we decided to concentrate on Nero Buono. We assumed that in Rome itself there would be plenty of versions by myriad producers. 

Part of our itinerary was to visit the gardens of Ninfa and by good luck we dicovered that the town of Cori, epicentre of Nero Buono was on the way. 

So making the slight side-trip to Cori we expected to supplement our researches with a few bottles not available elsewhere. Cori itself was not very promising with surprisingly drab outskirts and no enoteca or even supermarket to be seen. 

 

Not wishing to subject our group tto a Slotovino wild goose chase we resumed our route, passing plenty of vineyards 

Pergola

 

Some of the vines were Pergola trained. At a guess these may have been for the other speciality of the area, Bellone which D'Agata describes as magical...outstanding.

Not far along the road we came to a huge Cash and Carry advertising food and wine.

Here the chap in the shorts showed us shelves of wine from all over Italy but no Nero Buono. Somewhat dejected we asked if we could buy a couple of bottles of mineral water. He wrenched two from a wall of Aqua Minerale and walked off refusing any payment. Perhaps he was embarrassed that the wonderful local wine was practically all sent to the cooperative, Cantina Cincinnato?

Cantina Cincinnato where the wine is made

 

In fact Cincinnato is an excellent cooperative and had received a write-up un Jancis Robinson's Purple Pages by Tara Q. Thomas just two months before our trip. The cooperative was founded in 1947. They advise more than 100 winemakers farming some 550 ha of vines of different sorts. Nero Buono comprises only 85 ha. 25 years ago there were just 3 producers working with this variety. Now there are more than 10.

 

Cincinnato also have a wine resort hotel in Cori which we would like to have checked out. We had met people at Ninfa who were staying there and had recommended it highly.  

 

 

 Back in Rome we checked out The two main winemerchants, Enoteca Costantini and Trimani.

 

 

Costantini had nothing but at Trimani we found this Nero Buono made not by Cincinnato but the Lepino by Giangirolami referred to above.

  

 However, nil desperandum as the Romans say, we found this tip in D'Agata:

'In one of Italy's many complex bureaucratic intrigues, the DOC Cori wine calls surprisingly for only a maximum of 40 percent Nero Buono. In the nearby Castelli Romani DOC Rosso, where the variety has always been historically less important than in Cori, it can be used for 100 percent. Go figure.' 

D'Agata adds ominously that 'because Nero Buono is an up-and-coming variety, expect an increase...in wines not monovarietal, containing large doses of Montepulciano...please pay attention to the name of the producer for wines labelled Nero Buono, as not everyone's heart is in the right place.' 

Reverting to supermarket shelves we found this bottle labelled 'Terre Romane Castelli Romani Rosso.'  

We asked staff if they knew if this was Nero Buono but they did not. Amazingly there was a telephone number on the back label which we called. Astonishingly, even though it was a Saturday afernoon, our call was answered and unbelievably, the voice on the other end confirmed that the bottle contained Nero Buono 100%. 

In the same modest supermarket we bought a bottle of Cincinnato's Polluce

 

and their Ercole, both mentioned in the article by Tara Q. Thomas and reviewed by Tim Jackson MW who used the phrase 'Well done this coop' in his review of the Polluce 2017 above and she of our 2006 Nero Buono also above in which she wrote 'reminds me a little of Aglianico (high praise).'