![\"P1000621\"](\"http:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/P1000621-300x225.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHaving been originally connected to its French neighbour through the kingdom of Savoie, Liguria naturally shares a number of its Meditteranean characteristics \u2013 brightly painted houses, cacophonous markets and of course, the sea. However, from a wine perspective, it is distinctly different.<\/p>\n
Keeping in with the Italian tradition of being unique but admirably confusing, there are significantly more grape varieties \u2013 somewhere around 100. These are all tucked into 6000 hectares of vines, though only 500 of them are in their 8 DOCs, or delineated appellation areas. This makes Liguria one of the smallest wine regions in Italy, producing only 2% of their DOC wines. Some of their DOCs specialise in red, while some, a bit of everything including Sciacchetr\u00e0, a rare sweet wine from Cinque Terre.<\/p>\n
Instead of ros\u00e9, the south of France\u2019s main wine style, Liguria is most famous for its white wines – mostly dry, fresh, salty and mineral. The main varieties are Vermentino or Pigato, which often exhibit notes of white pineapple and citrus fruits and are easily quaffable and delicious. Although Italy has 3 Vermentino areas \u2013 Liguria, Tuscany and Sardinia \u2013those from Liguria are generally its freshest and lightest to the touch.<\/p>\n
Due to the fresh, breezy climate, their reds tend to be lighter as well and focus more on their crunchy fruit. The easiest one to find is Rossese (from Dolceacqua), but Ciliegiolo, an even lighter styled, cherry-filled wine can be worth seeking out. Both are perfect for spring or summer drinking.<\/p>\n
Although ros\u00e9 is no stranger either, it is the least produced of the three. Unlike Provence ros\u00e9s which tend to be very light pink or even what the French call \u2018onion skin\u2019, most ros\u00e9s from Liguria are claret-like, deeper in colour and with more structure (see Ros\u00e9 Wines from Liguria<\/a>\u00a0by Elizabeth Gabay MW).<\/p>\n One of the region\u2019s greatest challenges is its difficult viticulture. With most of the vineyards cut into the steep sculpted terraces at up to 60 \u00b0, dedicated labour of fearless and tireless workers is required. While it sounds intriguing even poetic, it pushes up the cost of production. Since Ligurian wine is lesser known and does not (yet) have the salability factor of Tuscany, for example, many people struggle to see the benefit in working hard for little monetary return. But one cannot help but admire those who continue to dedicate their lives to carrying on this tradition, producing these unique and often delicious bottles.<\/p>\n Due to the success of Tuscan and Sardinian wines, Vermentino is one grape on the rise (“Why Vermentino Is A Contender To Challenge Sauvignon Blanc”<\/a>\u00a0by Fiona Beckett) and so more and more people will hopefully seek out these delicious seaside treasures.<\/p>\n Want to discover more?<\/strong><\/p>\n Mare & Mosto<\/a> (\u201cSea & Must\u201d) \u2013 a new exciting annual wine event that uniquely focuses on Ligurian wines, producers and regions.\u00a0 In addition to a thorough tasting of the region\u2019s wines, they also offer master classes, focusing on the specific regions or wine styles. In May 2015, it took place in the beautiful coastal spa town of Sestre Levanti.<\/a><\/p>\n Visit! \u2013 Liguria is easily reached by Genova or Nice airport. It is hard to find fresher seafood, more perfect pesto (it is legendary), gorgeous seaside villages and incredible hiking trails that dot along the coast above Cinque Terre<\/a>. This is paradise for nature, food and white wine lovers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When people think of Italian wine, chances are Liguria is not on the radar \u2013 Tuscany, Piedmont, Veneto, Sicily\u2026but Liguria? Expanding eastward from the French Riviera border, this gorgeous and cliff-rich region curves itself around Genoa, Italy\u2019s 6th largest city, … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"kt_blocks_editor_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[16,20,18,21,13,12,15,14,11],"class_list":["post-8","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-italy","tag-ciliegiolo","tag-cinque-terre","tag-liguria","tag-mare-e-mosto","tag-pigato","tag-rose","tag-rossese","tag-sciacchetra","tag-vermentino"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"adesivo-rossese\"](\"http:\/\/wine-wanderer.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/adesivo-rossese.png\")
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