Personalities

Dromos, Russia and Etruscans
«Vinnaya Karta» №5(106)October 2009

Poggio Verrano winery on the Tuscan coast in Maremma is fairly young.

Its flagship red wine Dromos was first made in 2003. Yet, in a short time Dromos gained an enviable reputation. In Italy alone it is featured in 18 restaurants decorated with Michelin stars. The winery’s success is owed to Francesco Bolla, from a renowned winemaking dynasty. He bid farewell to the family enterprise in Valpolicella and started a greenfield project on the Tuscan coast. In 2005 he formally presented first vintage of Dromos in Moscow, and since then the wine has been invariably sold in Russia.

I am pleased to say that Russia was the first market where the maiden vintage of Dromos was shipped.

You are correct. The first public appearance of Dromos was in May 2005. It happened to be in Moscow during the Vinitaly wine show. The wine was much liked by a Russian importer. A week later I was back in Italy, and the first order came. As a matter of fact, I have a bottle in the winery which I brought back from Russia one year after with a stamp of the Russian customs to show that it was indeed our first shipment abroad.

The first wine was sold in 2005, but the story of Poggio Verano starts in 2000.

Yes. We started in a new millennium, but the reality is that in the end of 1999 I left Bolla, the family winery in Valpolicella, and the following year I decided to start my own new project here in Maremma, the southern part of the Tuscan coast.

What was the idea behind a new project?

My idea was to create a new red wine, trying to follow the footsteps of my grandfather. As my grandfather Roberto was known as “grandfather” of Amarone, a very prestigious wine from my area of origin Verona, so my goal was to make a new red wine that over time might become another great wine.

You set yourself a very challenging task. Now, having made 5 vintages of Dromos, have you come closer to fulfilling your dream?

As you said, it is a very difficult challenge. At the time of my grandfather there were very few wines around. Now there are hundreds of thousands of wines from many countries of the Old and New World. Obviously, it’s much more difficult. The knowledge about winemaking is much more spread. Starting from zero we — and I speak in plural because the success of my project is the success of my team — had a clear idea of what to do. Now we see that the consumers seem to like our wine.

Your winery is situated in Maremma which in the eyes of wine lovers is well associated with freedom in winemaking.

You have given a good interpretation of the area. This is one of the reasons why I chose Maremma. Another reason is because it is near the sea and it has very nice climate. I was specially looking for a place with Mediterranean climate in order to get mature grapes regularly, year in year out. Being close to the sea — not too much, but enough — gives you a very nice bright sky, and a very nice temperature during the day. Being on the hill we have a very good difference in temperatures between day and night which helps to obtain fresh and fragrant grapes.

Only red grape varieties are used in Poggio Verrano. When you purchased your land, though, it was virgin; there was no previous history of vineyards. Did you choose grape varieties based on the idea which wine you want to make or on natural conditions of the place?

Not being from Tuscany (I was born in Verona), I felt respect for the indigenous grape which is Sangiovese, but I didn’t feel obliged to plant just Sangiovese. In a way, I knew I had to respect the important grape, but I didn’t have to think just about it. Being on the coast of Tuscany, there is much more freedom in varieties. As a matter of fact, the central-north part of the coast, Bolgheri, is very famous for Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Cabernet Franc. So in this part of the region international grapes are really almost local. I chose those grapes along with two local ones. One was Sangiovese and the other Alicante, part of Garnacha family. Alicante origin, as just proven by a scientific study is linked to the Spanish domination on the southern part of Italy.

So Dromos is a blend of all 5 grapes, and now it’s time to talk about the style. There is a stereotype that wine from the Tuscan coast is very powerful, yet, Dromos is different by being very elegant. How was the style born?

At the beginning of the project I had clearly in mind Amarone, a very important wine from my area. Amarone is a very powerful wine, but it is elegant. It is naturally strong because grapes are dried, yet the elegance is retained. For me it has always been a natural element. In Poggio Verrano the wine comes from completely different varieties, from a different area, it doesn’t undergo a drying process, but the idea of style remains the same — a wine that combines intensity and elegance. We are also convinced that wine has to go with food. Now famous chefs are trying to present the best natural flavours of food. Wine should not be “arrogant”, it should not overpower food, just be a good friend. This was another reason to make an elegant wine.

Just one more point about our philosophy, since we started speaking about it. Our wine is made with a long aging potential. You can “forget” it for years and years in your cellar, and after 20 years you will find treasure in a bottle. At the same time you can drink Dromos immediately after release because tannins are so soft, silky, not aggressive. All depends on your personal taste. If you prefer more fruit flavours, you drink wine when it is young. If you like flavours of a mature wine, you leave it and wait till the wine ages.

You recently presented a new wine, Dromos L’Altro. It is made with Sangiovese which is quite a different expression of a Sangiovese that we are used to in classical areas of Tuscany such as Chianti Classico or Brunello di Montalcino. Why and how was the wine born?

Each variety is vinified separately — Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese, Alicante, Cabernet Franc. Thus we see precisely follow each one of them. After 2 or 3 years of vinificaton we found out that could take out a little bit of Sangiovese from our Dromos, and Dromos wasn’t really losing anything. At the same time we were able to give life to a new wine, very different from Dromos, but at the same quality level. And why not to do, again, in order to respect the major grape, the most traditional grape of Tuscany. Obviously, the question of comparisons is a delicate one. With our Sangiovese we want to express our thinking, we are not trying to prove anything to anybody.

Famed Italian consultant Carlo Ferrini is involved in the work of Poggio Verrano. Why did you choose to have his advice?

I met Carlo Ferrini in the late eighties when I was still working at Bolla. At that time we had an idea to do a project in the Chianti area, though eventually nothing came out of it. I went for a couple days in Chianti and was introduced to Carlo who at the time was Chianti Classico technical director. I had a good feeling about him. Then we met on various occasions in the following years. I believe I know all the most important Italian consultants, but I am most comfortable in dealing with Ferrini. Since I had to start from zero, I had to be as right as possible also in the vineyard. Apart from having a very good winemaking background, Ferrini has an excellent background in viticulture. That’s why I thought about him and contacted him for this project.

The winery building is hidden from the view. Besides, various natural forces are engaged. Can you tell us more?

The winery accomplishes three objectives. The first objective was to keep the nature as a dominant element of the whole property. Maremma is a wild country, it is very rustic, so I didn’t want to have an outside building ruining the landscape of the area.

The second was to have a gravity flown winery. That means that all our vinification process is very gentle because it is adjusted by gravity, no pumping. This is very important. At the first stage of a vinification process grapes arrive to fermentation tanks. In a gravity flown winery we don’t have any mechanic or metallic parts in contact with grapes. Seeds are never broken, and this is key. We get only noble tannins which are not biting your tongue.

Thirdly, as wine undergoes long aging process in oak and then in bottles, maintaining right temperature and humidity is essential. The winery is surrounded and covered by 2 metres of soil. It is a path to having right natural conditions without using power. It is saving us money, and it is also good for the environment.

Along with functionality, Poggio Verrano has a certain cultural aspect. You are one of the few wineries who talk about the ancient Etruscan civilisation in Maremma. Dromos is also an Etruscan word. What is the link between the winery and the ancient people?

Here I’d like to make a step back for one second. It has become a fashion to talk about wines as an expression of territory. I agree that what you drink should express the territory. But it is not only about the soil, the climate, exposure, and so on. It is also about expressing the culture of the territory where the wine comes from. Maremma in Tuscany is a land of Etruscans. There were other people, like Greeks and Romans, but when you think about Maremma, it is about Etruscan sites. So for me this was the culture to look at, and I have created very simple links between what we do and these people.

And the final question. Are you satisfied what has been achieved so far in Poggio Verrano?

My team and I are in the learning process. We know that so far we’ve been good in what we’ve done, but we know that we can do more. With each year the vines become older, so wines should be getting even better. We are very pleased with what we’ve done so far, but we will never be sitting and relaxing. We will continue to be very active and to improve further.