The best white wines of Puglia. AIS focuses on “Bellagriffi” Moscatello Selvatico Puglia IGP Crifo
21 November 2020
Among the best white wines of Puglia is undoubtedly the Moscatello Selvatico. A wine that the Cantina Ruvo di Puglia produces under the label “Bellagriffi” Moscatello Selvatico Puglia IGP CRIFO.
It is made from pure Moscatello Selvatico grapes, grown in the Ruvo di Puglia area at Contrada Bellagriffi, from which the label takes its name, harvested between late August and early September. It represents a perfect synthesis of cultivating an authorized Puglian grape variety using traditional methods and winemaking with modern techniques. This is why it is included in the selections that the Italian Sommelier Association Puglia prepares for courses dedicated to its members.
A confirmation, more than a success, for the Cantina di Ruvo di Puglia, a historic Puglian wine cooperative founded in 1960, which can count on over 500 members working across more than 1,500 hectares of vineyards.
Returning to the wine featured in this article, the AIS Murge delegation had already planned its tasting in various association meetings, as well as in the study classes of its aspiring sommeliers. An added value of these occasions was the participation of the creator of “Bellagiffi,” the enologist of the Cantina di Ruvo di Puglia, Massimo Tripaldi, President of Assoenologi for the Puglia-Basilicata-Calabria Section and a great expert of the territory and the same production reality of which he is also the Technical Manager.
The important Puglian grape variety Moscatello Selvatico belongs to the large Moscati family, of which it presents the typical aromaticity.
It is cultivated between the Murge and the Conca di Bari, the result of millennia of effort, in lands that today are among the richest in future for the intrinsic values they preserve as well as for the natural gift they have received: it is no coincidence that the wine CRIFO produces there is, finally, looked at with different and more attentive eyes, both in Italy and around the world.
Production techniques
The grapes are immediately brought to the winery and subjected to destemming, then cooled to 10°; they then undergo a brief maceration in the press for 4/6 hours to extract the aromas from the skins. The free-run must is collected for fermentation in steel at 15°. The wine ages for 40 days on the lees before being bottled, where it remains for an additional 2 months of aging.
Tasting notes
Its intense straw yellow color and golden reflections anticipate the complex aromaticity of this wine. It showcases delicate tea rose and white peach while citrus notes give way to subtle hints of anise and sage. The finish is pleasant, fresh, and slightly balsamic, with returns of medicinal herbs and rosemary.
Food pairings
Wild herb risotto, chickpea and saffron velouté, fried sage, rosemary potatoes, Puglian-style monacelle.
Serving temperature: 10°C
Analytical data:
Alcohol content 12% vol
Residual sugar 5.20 g/l
Total acidity 5.50 g/l
