One of the joys of visiting a less well-known Italian region is the local grape varieties to be found there. Romagna’s Albana grape variety is a perfect example. It is barely grown anywhere else than between Bologna and Italy’s Adriatic coast and has become a regional speciality of Romagna. It also has beautiful bunches of grapes with a stunning translucent gold colour. The bunch size depends on the clone but it can be very large, as in the picture to the right below. The wine can also take on this colour too as we will see. Somewhat improbably, Romagna Albana was Italy’s very first DOCG back in 1966.

A versatile grape that makes a range of styles

Albana wines come in a range of styles. These include:

• simple, dry, lemon- and pear-flavoured wines for immediate drinking;
• an amabile, off-dry, version seen little today;
• concentrated dry white wines with apricot fruit, substance on the palate and quite high alcohol – these can be aged in bottle, as we will see below;
• passito and botrytis-affected sweet wines of hugh potential and, in the case of botrytis, high complexity. Fattoria Zerbina make a truly outstanding range of these wines including Scaccomatto that can develop in the bottle over a couple of decades and, no doubt, more.
• sparkling – as the basic grape variety is quite nuetral, it shows toasty traditional method notes well. Podere La Berta make a good example. This style falls outside Romagna Albana DOCG but that doesn’t stop it being of interest.

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Albana in the vineyard and winery

In the vineyard, Albana is trained long as the first three buds are infertile. In the past, this was done on high trellises of up to 2.5m, as in the picture above. It also requires decent levels of moisture to allow the fruit to ripen fully. The variety is very vigorous indeed and needs attention to yield. The better wines are grown at lower yields. It is thick-skinned and hence can be left on the vine to be attacked by botrytis if this is the style aimed for. Its high acidity makes it perfect for the full range of wine styles. This is particularly important in giving balance to the very sweet wines. In the winery, the chief challenge is to prevent oxidation either by working protectively (more typical) or by hyperoxidation that can confer protection against later oxidation. Producers are also playing with skin contact as Romagna’s Albana variety definitely has tannins that can be extracted. Nowadays, you can taste the whole spectrum from no tannins in wines made with whole cluster pressing, via short contact of 1–2 days to fully orange wines. A very good example of the last is Tre Monti, Vitalba, Albana in anfora, a wine made in Georgian amphora with skin contact of around 100 days. A five-year-old example of this wine had perfectly rounded tannins and real complexity.

Can Albana age in the bottle?

As a relatively neutral variety (it has a parent-offspring relationship with Garganega, Soave’s variety), a question is whether the high-quality wines can improve with bottle age. I was able to taste this for myself on a 2021 visit sponsored by the wines of Romagna. At Celli in Bertinoro, we were treated to examples from each year between 2020 and 2013. The wines were from three top producers, Celli, La Viola and Giovanna Madonia. These wines are all made reductively and thus they start off pale lemon in colour and become rather deeper over the eight vintages tasted.

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The wines definitely show a positive development. I Groppi, Celli, 2020 has quite rich lemon fruit with a touch of apricot, very light tannins (just eight hours in the press on the skins) and a balancing freshness. La Viola, Frangipane 2016 was the first to show tertiary notes, honey, dried fruit alongside fresh fruit. Finally, Giovanna Madonia, Neblina, 2013 has a high intensity of dried apricot fruit, honey and retains a fresh, floral note too. The high acidity keeps all in balance.

Romagna’s Albana variety is a very versatile, truly local variety that can offer great drinking experiences.