Candia dei Colli Apuani DOC, is just south of the Tuscan border in the province of Massa. Though only a few miles away from Colli di Luni, the landscape is notably different. Here the hills, with the white-capped Apuan Alps hovering close behind them, are curvier and steeper than those of the Colli di Luni, the disparity between the frenetic hubbub of the Via Aurelia and the desolation of the higher reaches even more extreme.
“There is a feeling of remoteness here, and as I drive along the narrow roads with winemaker Aurelio Cima, (vineyard?) it looks even wilder due to the damage caused by heavy rains in the fall of 2012. The water turned hillsides into rivers and tore up the vineyards and will take years to recover.”
“Candia is the truly ancient part of the Lunigiana,” says Cima. While the soil of Candia’s hills is rather loose, it has more clay and chalk than the Colli di Luni. This seems to make for earthier and more concentrated wines such as his Vermentino Vigneto Alto, which combines a cool minerality reminiscent of marble dust with a full palate of caramelized pineapple flavour and an almost tannic finish.
“This was the preferred viticultural area of ancient Luni,” says Cima, whose 12,500-case winery is the major player in a field of tiny wineries. “The ships that landed in the port brought vine cuttings directly from Greece and the colonies in southern Italy, which were then planted in these hills. That’s why we have so many different local varieties.” He pours another wine, this one deep, dark purple and full of ripe wild fruit flavors mixed with woodsy brambles, good acidity and firm tannins. “This is vermentino nero and it is indigenous to this area.”
Cima, for example, makes a beautiful wine entirely from Massaretta (also known as Barsaglina), another rare, indigenous variety
A tiny winery called Casteldelpiano makes a promising white version of the Pollera Nera grape in a wine called Durilinda (as well as Melampo, a lovely pinot nero)
Terenzuola makes a captivatingly earthy, racy Canaiolo Nero called ‘Merla della Miniera’ from the vineyard above the old lignite mine.
Leave a Reply