Where did you find that Troia?

[Craig Camp]

Randall,

Nero di Troia is a varietal that, even in Italy, many a serious Italian wine connoisseur has never heard of - at least outside of Puglia. How did you discover this varietal and where is the vineyard located? Why that troia instead of the virtuous negroamaro?

Do you have other projects with indigenous southern Italian varietals in the works?

[Randall Grahm]

Dear Craig,

We have been working with the folks at Rivera in the Castel del Monte appellation for a number of years now, producing a wine called "Il Circo Uva di Troia "La Violetta". I visited Puglia a number of times and concluded that Troia was the variety that had the greatest potential for a really full bodied, yet elegant wine. (I brought them the microoxygenation technology, which seems to be very well suited to the troia grape.) My own theory is that the reason the Troia is superior to the other varieties in the region is that it is grown on pergola, which shades it from the fierce sun and cools the vine (due to the higher humidity). The negro amaro and primitivo grown as bush vines get the full force of the sun and tend to get baked to a faretheewell. We are bringing in some other Ugly Duckling wines under the Il Circo label, notably a great Ruché from Piemonte as well as a Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. There are plans afoot to bring in an Erbaluce and perhaps a Sagrantino as well. Who knows where it will end? Cheers, R.