We were delighted to welcome Silvia Allegrini, of the famous and historic Allegrini winemaking family, to Ballymaloe, during her first visit to Cork. The Allegrini estate, dating back to the 16th century, is located in Fumane di Valpolicella, near Verona, in North-East Italy. Among the wines they make, are Valpolicella, Palazzo della Torre, La Grola, La Poja, Amarone and Recioto. www.allegrini www.allegrini.it Our thanks to Gerry Gunnigan, of Liberty Wines, for organising this visit. www.libertywines.ie
Allegrini, have also launched the first talking wine label in the world, which can be found in fine wine shops around the world. A new and revolutionary technology that allows a bottle of wine to ‘talk about itself’. The technology, called Ecocoder, is a combination hand-held scanner and speaker that is activated by touching the language options on the back label of one of their wines, Palazzo delle Torre. The device decodes information embedded in
a special layer of ink and instantly plays a pre-recorded audio file stored in its memory card allowing you to hear first-hand from the producer about the wine’s history, origin, production, flavours and ideal food pairings. The labels have been designed by an Italian label design firm called Modulgraf www.modulgraf.com who specialize in innovative
technology.
Allegrini’s Palazzo della Torre, is a wine produced using an innovative take on the ancient Roman winemaking technique of drying grapes to concentrate flavours and structure. The juice from the dried fruit is then blended with wine made from fresh grapes to start a second fermentation, increasing its richness, density and complexity.
Allegrini have also been forward thinking embracing the stelvin ‘screwcap’ closure, for their Valpolicalla, in order to maintain the style of the wine, eliminating any potential cork taint. Because of this, their Valpolicella is not allowed use the ‘Classico’ status, because of Italian wine law, which does not permit screwcap closures for the ‘Classico’ classification.
We look forward to welcoming Silvia back soon again. Our thanks also to Silvia for doing a short video clip for the Ballymaloe iPadwine list.
“Superb estate. Excellent Recioto, and Amarone†Hugh Johnson
“Simply put, Allegrini are to wine, what Ferrari is to cars†Matt Skinner (Jamie Olivier’s Sommelier, and author ‘The Juice’)
Pictured are Silvia Allegrini and Darina.