Most wine experts consider Provence, France to be the epicenter of “serious” rosé wine production. And many of those experts can’t abide a rosé with anything other than the pale, onion-skin color of a Bandol wine. Well, Italy has something to say about that, and you couldn’t ask for more convincing spokespeople than the Scalas of Cirò.
Nestled along the Ionian coast of Calabria, the “toe” of the Italian boot, Cirò has a historic rosé culture to rival anything in the south of France, and while the hue of today’s 2020 is a little more saturated, its lively energy and uncommon complexity is not in question. Not only is a cool bottle of Cirò Rosato a perfect complement to Calabria’s often-fiery cuisine, it is produced in effectively the same conditions as any Provençal wine: Cirò is a hot, arid, coastal region, with the same scrubby landscape surrounding its vineyards, so while the grape variety in today’s wine, Gaglioppo, may be unique, the overall impression of the wine will be deliciously familiar. The mark of a great rosé for me is not just firm structure but a balance of fruit sweetness and mineral savor—that is, a wine that tastes like wine, not a confection. This bone-dry 2020 will slake any remaining summer heat, but I’ll also be turning to it again and again all year round because a better food wine might not exist: All I think about when I taste this is what I’m going to cook next, and whether the first bottle will survive the preparation process!
The town of Cirò, which lends its name to the wine appellation (DOC) in and around it, sits in a little crook in the south Calabrian coastline. It was one of the original Greek settlements on the southern Italian peninsula and the site of the earliest Olympic games, where an ancient version of Cirò wine was given to the winners as a prize. Calabria’s modern history is a less glamorous; it remains one of Italy’s poorest regions, with a still-pervasive mafia influence, and only recently have we seen a broader assortment of Cirò wines in the US market—the region’s best-known producer, Librandi, has been the torch-bearer for a long time, but now we’re seeing other well-established properties get some traction here. The Scalas have a history in Cirò going back 200 years and the modern-era winery was founded in 1949. Today, Luigi Scala and his son, Francesco, run the estate, which includes 18 hectares of Certified Organic vineyards.
As with their Cirò Rosso, this rosato is crafted from 100% Gaglioppo—the signature red grape of the appellation. Thought to be a cross of Sangiovese and a more-local variety called Mantonico, Gaglioppo doesn’t achieve very deep color pigmentation as a red wine, often taking on a brick-orange cast even when young. In rosé form, it has a coppery cast somewhat reminiscent of Provençal wines. The Gaglioppo for this wine was hand-harvested, de-stemmed, and left for about 24 hours on its skins before the juice is drawn off to continue fermenting in temperature-controlled stainless steel.
And, like their Cirò red, the 2020 rosé has lots of spice and savor to complement a bright, red-fruited core. Bright copper-pink in the glass, it sends up perfumed aromas of cranberry, blood orange peel, wild strawberry, pekoe tea, watermelon rind, pink peppercorn, dried flowers, and wild herbs. It is tangy and quite savory, perfect for pairing with food—no “cocktail” rosé, this. Pull the cork and pour into all-purpose stems at 45 degrees, safe in the knowledge that just about anything you choose to serve with it is going to work: tomato-sauced pastas with some chile heat, grilled shrimp or prawns, the spreadable Calabrian sausage called n’duja slathered on some crusty bread…I could go on forever. The wine is drinking beautifully now but, as with our favorite French rosés, it promises to be even better in its “second spring” (i.e. second quarter of 2022). Stock up on this—you’ll be glad you did!
