I have always had a fondness for sheep. I think it started when, as a teenager, I became a keen hill walker and often found myself with sheep for company on various dales, fells and other names used to describe what the English like to claim as mountains.
I have also had a long term fondness for cheese, as you may already know if you have read the 'we have both kinds' page above, however, in the great Venn diagram of my life these two fondnesses are not together in the intersection. That is, I don't usually care for sheep's milk cheese or, in fact, cheese made from anything other than cow's milk.
I had encountered Pecorino as a cheese made from sheep's milk (specifically ewe's milk as the alternative really doesn't bear thinking about) long before I discovered the grape of the same name and am very glad I didn't allow my opinion of the former suppress my curiosity about the latter.
Week P (2014) Umani Ronchi Pecorino, Tierre di Chieti, IGT. 2013. M&S £10
Apparently the grape is so named because there is a long tradition of sheep farming in the Marche region of Eastern Italy where this variety has its historic home and the sheep, for whom the Italian name is 'percora', would amble through the vineyards and eat the fruit. Hence this becoming 'the sheep's grape', or similar.
Although the Marche is the historic home for Pecorino the grapes used here were grown in the adjoining region of Abruzzo on mixed clay and sand soils. Once picked, they are gently pressed and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel for 10 - 15 days, before resting on their lees (dead yeast cells) for 4 months.
To keep the fresh fruitiness the wine does not undergo malolactic fermentation, which would soften the feel but diminish its juicy acidity.
It is a medium lemon colour with lovely stone fruit, peachy/mango flavours and a good finish that has a gentle spicy kick. At 12.5% abv it is well balanced and refreshing and great with food or alone.
It seems that Pecorino was under threat of extinction until being rediscoverd over the last decade, or, so and is now proving popular and rightly so, in my opinion. Aside from this dry version it is also made in spumante and even passito styles, the latter being a sweet wine made from partially dried grapes, which is something of an Italian speciality.
I hold to the idea that variety is the spice of life and that this warrants investigation across a broad range of topics (I have elsewhere mentioned cheese, bread, beer, etc), but some years ago this belief lead to me gaining a reputation for standing aside from the main flock because I had a poster on my office wall depicting many, if not all, of the breeds of sheep found in the British Isles. If anyone was sufficiently interested to ask why they would be invited to glance through the accompanying book which not only replicated pictures from the poster, but also gave a great depth of information of what each breed could offer the farmer. Fascinating stuff.
I have also had a long term fondness for cheese, as you may already know if you have read the 'we have both kinds' page above, however, in the great Venn diagram of my life these two fondnesses are not together in the intersection. That is, I don't usually care for sheep's milk cheese or, in fact, cheese made from anything other than cow's milk.
I had encountered Pecorino as a cheese made from sheep's milk (specifically ewe's milk as the alternative really doesn't bear thinking about) long before I discovered the grape of the same name and am very glad I didn't allow my opinion of the former suppress my curiosity about the latter.
Week P (2014) Umani Ronchi Pecorino, Tierre di Chieti, IGT. 2013. M&S £10Apparently the grape is so named because there is a long tradition of sheep farming in the Marche region of Eastern Italy where this variety has its historic home and the sheep, for whom the Italian name is 'percora', would amble through the vineyards and eat the fruit. Hence this becoming 'the sheep's grape', or similar.
Although the Marche is the historic home for Pecorino the grapes used here were grown in the adjoining region of Abruzzo on mixed clay and sand soils. Once picked, they are gently pressed and fermented in temperature controlled stainless steel for 10 - 15 days, before resting on their lees (dead yeast cells) for 4 months.
To keep the fresh fruitiness the wine does not undergo malolactic fermentation, which would soften the feel but diminish its juicy acidity.
It is a medium lemon colour with lovely stone fruit, peachy/mango flavours and a good finish that has a gentle spicy kick. At 12.5% abv it is well balanced and refreshing and great with food or alone.
It seems that Pecorino was under threat of extinction until being rediscoverd over the last decade, or, so and is now proving popular and rightly so, in my opinion. Aside from this dry version it is also made in spumante and even passito styles, the latter being a sweet wine made from partially dried grapes, which is something of an Italian speciality.
I hold to the idea that variety is the spice of life and that this warrants investigation across a broad range of topics (I have elsewhere mentioned cheese, bread, beer, etc), but some years ago this belief lead to me gaining a reputation for standing aside from the main flock because I had a poster on my office wall depicting many, if not all, of the breeds of sheep found in the British Isles. If anyone was sufficiently interested to ask why they would be invited to glance through the accompanying book which not only replicated pictures from the poster, but also gave a great depth of information of what each breed could offer the farmer. Fascinating stuff.
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