Marzemino

Marzemino is a late-ripening, dark-skinned grape variety grown mainly in Trentino-Alto Adige but also in the Veneto, Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna wine regions of Italy.

Marzemino's most prestigious role is as the key ingredient in the sweet Colli di Conegliano Refrontolo passito wines, for which grapes are dried out in the winery (traditionally on straw mats) for weeks or even months after harvest. In Lombardy it is almost never used for varietal wine, but is instead blended with the likes of Sangiovese, Barbera and Merlot, notably in the wines of the Capriano del Colle and Botticino.

Like its northern Italian stablemates Vespaiolo and Raboso, Marzemino has grassy, herbal elements and a sour-cherry tang in its organoleptic makeup, but has a greater balance in terms of acid and sugar levels. Given a sufficiently sunny site (most likely on the southwest-facing slopes of the Adige valley or in the hills around Conegliano), Marzemino can produce refreshing, berry-scented wines.

Outside of Italy, a handful of producers have been producing varietal Marzemino wines, namely in Australia's King Valley and New Zealand's Hawke's Bay.