Not only did I get to meet some fantastic Calabrese winemakers VinItaly International, I got to meet winemakers with my name! My last tasting of the festival was with Ermano and Gabriela Falvo who have been making wine at Masseria Falvo since 2004. They have 26 hectares planted almost exclusively with grapes indigenous to Calabria. The majority of the acreage is devoted to Magliocco Dolce, an indigenous red, and Guarnaccia, the native white. Smaller plots are dedicated to Malvasia, Traminer, and Riesling. I questioned why they would choose to cultivate such a traditionally cool weather grape in the south of Italy and the answer was that Gabriela, like myself, is a fanatic for Alsatian Riesling. We tasted through seven absolutely gorgeous wines with Ermano practicing his English and me fumbling through my Italian. I am in love with floral whites, so their 2016 Guarnaccia and the Pircoca were a perfect end to a perfect festival. The Guarnaccia has a floral nose with minerality, pears, and a phenolic finish. The Pircoca, a blend of 65% Guarnaccia with the remainder being a blend of Malvasia, Traminer, and Riesling was a beautifully balanced wine with an aromatic nose, flavors of peaches and apricots and a zippy acidity. Don Rosario, the namesake for the red, must have been a powerful man as his wine was a force to be reckoned with. It was a structured wine with flavors of black cherry and red berries with some big tannins and the acid needed to stand up to them. This wine spends 18 months in new French oak and 12 months in bottle prior to release. I suspect it would age well for another five to ten years. Our tasting ended on a sweet, delicious note with a 2012 Milirosu, made with Moscato and Malvasia grapes. The Moscato grapes are dried in the traditional passito method for 1 month whereas the Malvasia grape must is boiled. The two juices are then fermented together for 35 days to produces a golden amber wine with notes of a range blossom and apricot. We parted with hugs and kisses, an invitation for me to finally visit the region of my ancestry, and a bag full of wine!
Falvo’s in Flight
