Carnival, Canal Grande, city on water… Of course we are talking about Venice. And yes, they have one of the world´s most unique and exclusive wine.
Located on the island of Mazzorbo, behind the walls of an old monastery, a visionary named Gianluca Bisol revived what was thought to be an extinct grape varietal since the great flood of 1966 – Dorona di Venezia.
Sometimes things in life happen by coincidence, and so is the story of Dorona. Finding just a few vines on the neighboring island whilst visiting, Gianluca and his team of experts set out to see if there are some more of the forgotten vines. They found 88 vines, and nowadays after vinification there are around 4000 vines planted on approximately 1 Ha. The biggest bunch of the 88 vines came also with a farmer and his knowledge, because he was producing wine for him and his family like in the old days. Long maceration and skin contact (back in the day up to 40 days – nowadays depending on the harvest around 25 days) that give the typical characteristics of this wine. White wine with tannins or “Red wine disguised as white wine” as they like to call it. For maturing they use concrete tanks for two years, and then 12 months in bottles before coming to market. Whilst strolling through the vineyard, I asked if we can visit the cellar too, but funny thing – Venice does not have cellars! After a harvest, grapes are shipped to the city of Padova where they have enough ground to dig a cellar. I also asked if they would classify it as orange wine, but the answer was both yes and no. I do not think they wanted to be seen as orange wine…
Soil, or to be more accurate – the lack of it, is an important factor here. In the mostly sandy soil the roots are shallow and not deeper than 50 cm. And slowly we are coming to the most important part of the soil; the salt. The soil is extremely salty. So much that this is the only grape varietal that can survive and has adapted to the harsh condition of the unforgiving nature. Even after the great flood in 2019 when water was almost one and a half meters over the sea level and the vineyard was completely under (sea) water for 5 days, the grape not only survived, but thrived. What they also noticed, is an elevation difference in the vineyard of 1 meter, but more than enough to select a few vines as the premium ones that produce their signature and special wine Venissa bianco. Here we are talking of an area of 0.3 Ha only. 2017 also stands as a turning point in the production where before, their wine came as a blend of both plots and filtered, and afterwards as a single harvest and unfiltered natural one.
The production is small and exclusive. Depending on the vintage, between 3000 and 4000 bottles are made and they come in mostly 0.5L. Some come as magnum, jeroboam and imperial size bottles.
But the story of exclusivity does not end here. Just a 20 minutes boat ride from Mazzorbo is the island of Murano. Of course they opted for the world most famous glass to be their vessel of choice and joined forces with the Moretti family. And, as I said in the beginning, things in life sometimes happen by coincidence. Only a few days after Mr. Bisol decided to use the Murano glass, he met a person who gave the bottles their special gold leaves designed labels. Mr. Battiloro whose old and almost forgotten knowledge as a goldbeater of making gold leaves by hand. Those 24 carat gold leaves are then per hand placed on the bottles and “baked” into the glass. Afterwards comes the engraving and the batch number. Every single bottle is a handmade masterpiece.
Now to the tasting. A smell of petroleum, peaches, honey and honeycomb is in all vintages that I tried (some more, some less, depending on the age), and the taste was always extremely long-lasting with freshness, lemon fruits, herbal undertones and hints of sea salt. Vintages 2010, 2011 and 2012 had beautiful amber color, 2013 to 2017 deep dark gold color, and the newer ones had a typical unfiltered orange wine color.
This wine screams Venice in every single way. From a grape that can only grow there, to the bottles made in Murano, to a gold leaves label designed by the last one of before 300 families of Battiloro – Goldbeater. It truly is a thing to taste, appreciate and to put in your collection.
Marko Zdunić
Sommelier, Europäische Sommelier Schule
