Valpolicella producer favours screwcaps over Classico

Italian producer Allegrini has chosen screwcaps over its Valpolicella Classico denomination.

The Italian regulations for Valpolicella Classico don’t allow for the use of screwcaps, but Allegrini believes that they retain the freshness of its wine better than corks and, as the producer sees this as such a key component, it has decided it’s worth abandoning it and becoming just Valpolicella.

Classico appended to the name of a wine indicates that it has been produced in the historic zone, which gave the wine its name. As such, this zone should offer the ideal climate and soil conditions for making the wine.

David Gleave MW, managing director of Liberty Wines, the UK distributor for Allegrini, explained to ThirtyFifty that the Italian producer had hoped that the law was going to change in Valpolicella Classico. However, he said, ‘Once it became clear that the law wasn’t going to change, they made the move anyway.’

Liberty believes this is the right decision. And, more broadly, David thinks Italy is losing ground by not amending its regulations.

He said, ‘Italy’s current position as an exciting and dynamic producer of wine has been built on the solid base of innovation that has taken place in the past 40 years. In the past, producers were able to move outside of DOC when faced with official lethargy or intransigence (as in the case of the vini da tavola in Tuscany in the 1970s and 1980s). With screwcap, this option is open for certain wines, as in the case of Valpolicella.’

However, David pointed out that this is not the case in Soave Classico, which comes under a ministerial decree of July 1993. Here anything other than cork is prohibited for not only DOCG wines but also wines from sub zones. Even the fact that producers from the zone have voted to amend the law makes no difference – still it’s cork or nothing.

David doesn’t think this is right. ‘It should be up to the producer if they wish to use screwcap,’ he said. ‘ It should not be a decision made by bureaucrats in Rome.’