I’ve admired Vétua’s ½-hectare vineyard on countless occasions from under my umbrella at the Stella Marina beach club in Monterosso al Mare. Tidy green rows stripe a rectangular patch on a seemingly vertical slope that flanks the Cinque Terre hiking trail that leads to Vernazza. And I’ve sipped Vétua’s Vino Bianco, an intense golden – quasi-orange – wine, just as many times if not more. But I never actually visited the vineyard or did a proper wine tasting until recently.
Lunch at L'Ancora della Tartuga, one of the countless times I've sipped Vetua's Vino Bianco
Wine has been made in the Cinque Terre since antiquity and local producers haven’t been described as “heroic” for nothing. The adjective also applies to a few other regions in Italy, like Valtellina in northern Lombardy and the entire Valle d’Aosta, where the vineyards are so vertiginous that daily manual labor is the only way to tend to them. Most Cinque Terre vines are planted on terraces formed by muretti a secco, stone walls that originated as far back as the 11th century and are still constructed today. Winemakers still follow the same manual techniques that their predecessors implemented a thousand years ago, though with one contemporary comfort: the installation of monorails that help transport grapes and equipment up and down the steep slopes.
In Monterosso, husband and wife Sebastiano Catania and Rosy Scapparone of Vétua take winemaking to new heights. Rosy inherited a plot of land on the hill of Vettora (Vétua in dialect) from her father, a hobby winemaker who gifted his products to friends and family. The vines sit on a sun-soaked southwest-facing slope at an altitude of 180 meters (590 feet), directly in the path of the sirocco, a Mediterranean wind that blows up from the Sahara. Creativity got the best of them, and they started experimenting with biodynamic farming methods and natural wine-making techniques, and they released their first vintage in 2010.
Albarola grapes in the Vétua vineyard
The Cinque Terre DOC was established in 1973 and requires the white wines to contain 40% Bosco, up to 40% of Albarola and/or Vermentino, and up to 20% of other approved local grapes. The wines should also be a certain shade of yellow. In addition to the main three varietals, Vétua's Vino Bianco also contains Piccabùn, Frappelà, and Brujapagià, three indigenous varieties cultivated on vines that Sebastiano recuperated. The wine undergoes spontaneous fermentation and is macerated on the skin for 72 hours then aged on the lees for six months in stainless steel.
DOCs can be tricky. Plenty of great wines bear DOC and DOCG labels, though denominations don’t always guarantee quality. Dozens if not hundreds, of natural, and/or biodynamic winemakers around Italy choose to make their wine as they wish – foregoing the constraints of the DOC. And that doesn’t necessarily portend poor quality. Like Vétua – Rosy and Sebastiano opted to forego the DOC altogether because they were happy with the wine that they produced. And honestly, they’re all the better for it. Vétua’s Vino Bianco encapsulates the terroir in a glass: a lively, balanced blend of minerality, salty sea air, bright citrus fruits like lemons and agrumi, and herbs.
Vétua's cantina, where the wine tastings are held, is located in the town of Monterosso. The winery produces about 4,000-5,000 bottles a year, of which 3,000 is the Vino Bianco. To celebrate the 10th anniversary, Rosy and Sebastiano released “Ö", a limited edition white wine named for the word “hello” in the Monterossino dialect. The back of the bottle reads:
U munterussin dov'u và u và
ma se ti ghe dixi "Ö"
u se sente a cà
(Whenever a Monterissino hears “Ö,” he feels at home.)
An equally intense white wine, "Ö" comprises the same grapes as the Vino Bianco. They undergo 24-hour maceration on the skins then age on fine lees for 1 year before being refined in the bottle for another year. Their red, l Sogno della Sirena Rosso, is composed of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Sangiovese grapes form Bolgheri and oak-aged. Vétua also makes Sciacchetrà, the regional passito that’s not only a DOC but also protected by Slow Food presidium. Rumor has it that Vétua’s Sciacchetrà is impossible to buy as it pretty much sells out in advance.
The back of “Ö”
Rosy, an artist, designed the whimsical logo, which depicts a circle and a grape to symbolize the circle of life and the harvest respectively. The lines through the hand on the back of the bottle represent both the lines of life but also the Cinque Terre's hiking paths. Plus the land is worked by hand and the harvest is manual.
For better or for worse, the Cinque Terre attracts about 2.5 million visitors a year – and with the recent release of Disney Pixar’s Luca, that’s only bound to increase. In this charming, unforgettable part of Liguria, it's easy to get so caught up with what’s “in your face” that’s it’s easy to forget to look between the lines – or between the towns for that matter. Its hills are alive – and so are its wines. Go taste them.
Visit here to book a tour of Vétua and wine tasting in the Cinque Terre.
All photos by the author