Wine making is almost as essential to the history of Cinque Terre as fishing. Few human endeavors have shaped the land, culture and life of the Cinque Terre region like wine making. Nothing highlights this more than the stunning cliffside terracing which defines the coastline surrounding the towns. The incredible topography of the region as been redefined and repurposed by back breaking human labor over the course of thousands of years. The difficulty in creating and maintaining this artificial landscape to provide a place for this sacred fruit to be grown is something that each successive generation of wine makers must endure anew with each growing season. Furthermore, due to the inaccessibility of these cliffside vineyards this yearly endeavor is done manually, without the aid of tractors or trucks. During vintage, what can best be described as a bike seat with a lawnmower engine attached, sitting atop a monorail system is used to haul the harvest up the hillsides. It is for this reason that locals refer to the backbreaking effort that goes into each and every bottle of wine made in Cinque Terre as “heroic winemaking.”
However, you’d be hard pressed to find any native Ligurian who would tell you that the effort has not been well worth it. For centuries the entire economy of Cinque Terre revolved around the sale of wine through the Genoese Maritime Republic’s vast commercial network, spreading the famous Cinque Terre wine across the vast majority of Europe as a delicacy at a time when most wine was locally produced.
Today, the Cinque Terre name is associated with two types of wine, a dry white and a sweet dessert wine made from dried grapes (raisins), called Sciacchetra. Both are produced and sold under Italy’s strict denomination of controlled origin standards and labeling laws, allowing these wines to be labeled as Cinque Terre DOC and Cinque Terre Sciacchetra DOC. Both of these wines are made primarily from 3 grapes (at least 40% bosco and up to 40% of albarola and/or vermentino)
Cinque Terre DOC is a straw-yellow colored, light bodied, dry wine with a delicate aroma and a crystalline acidic finish. Expect clear scents of wild flowers, honey and lighter notes of citrus fruits and minerality. These wines are crisp, light and refreshing with surprising complexity. They fully embody the land in which they are grown. You can tase the surrounding lemon trees and wild herbs. You can taste a hint of the salinity from the craggy rocks they grow their deep roots into and the sea salt misting over the hills as the grapes grow. They pair unbelievably well with the fresh local seafood and pesto dishes.
The second type of wine that you will undoubtedly try on your trip to ‘Cinque Terre is the Cinque Terre Sciacchetra DOC’. For this wine, local wine makers select the best grapes from the harvest for the year and hang these grapes out to dry for at least 2 months. After satisfactorily dried, the grapes are pressed and undergo a very slow fermentation, followed by at least 2 years of barrel aging. The slow steady drying of the grapes removes water and concentrates the grapes sugars as well as the complex flavors contained within the grape. What results is a golden amber colored wine with stark sweetness mixed with an intriguing minerality and layered acidity that combine for one of the most complex and interesting desert wines you’ll ever try. You must try some on your trip to Cinque Terre with your dessert or even better with some dry aged pecorino or parmigiano cheeses or a complex gorgonzola.
While in Cinque Terre don’t even consider picking a wine from outside the region. The cuisine and wines of this region developed together and are the perfect complement to one another. Support the local economy and the generations of back breaking labor that has gone into creating this magical blend of wine, food and culture and enjoy the perfect complimentary tastes provided by a thousand years of history.
