Wine
White Orvieto is composed primarily of Grechetto and Trebbiano and a blend of Malvasia, Drupeggio, Verdello and Canaiolo bianco grapes. Grechetto is valued for the fruitiness and weight that it brings to the wine; some of the most highly rated examples of Orvieto have a high concentration of Grechetto. The wine today is radically different from the historical sweet Orvieto, with off-dry and sweet wines accounting for less than five percent of total production. In addition to the traditional grape varieties listed, some Orvieto producers have begun experimenting with non-DOC Vino da Tavola wines made from Riesling and Sauvignon blanc.
According to Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch, the Orvieto wine world tends to be divided into two camps: estates which make traditional neutral and Trebbiano-dominated wines, and estates which take advantage of the liberal DOC blending policy and use as much of other permitted grapes as possible. Under the Orvieto DOC regulations, wines may contain between 40% to 60% Trebbiano Toscano, 15% to 25% Verdello, and up to 20% maximum of Grechetto, Canaiolo Bianco (Drupeggio) and/or Malvasia Toscana for the remainder.
Read more about this topic: Orvieto DOC
Famous quotes containing the word wine:
“Thales claimed that everything was water. He also put wine into water to sterilize it. Did he really believe he was putting water into water to sterilize it? Parmenides, like most Greeks, knew that wine was not water. But while lifting a glass of wine to his lips, he denied that motion was possible. Did he really believe that the glass was not moving when he lifted it?”
—Avrum Stroll (b. 1921)
“Fair Hope! our earlier Heaven! by thee
Young Time is taster to Eternity.
The generous wine with age grows strong, not sour,
Nor need we kill thy fruit to smell thy flower.
Thy golden head never hangs down
Till in the lap of Love’s full noon
It falls and dies: Oh no, it melts away
As doth the dawn into the day,
As lumps of sugar lose themselves, and twine
Their subtle essence with the soul of wine.”
—Abraham Cowley (1618–1667)
“Water for oxen, wine for kings.”
—Spanish proverb.