Under Planeta's direction, the IRVV invited the participation of some of the most highly regarded wine experts in Italy. Besides seeking the assistance and advice of Scienza, it engaged Giacomo Tachis, the former chief enologist at Marchesi Antinori and a consulting enologist for many well-known Italian producers. For marketing, Planeta sought the assistance of Giampaolo Fabris, a professor at the University of San Raf-faele and a specialist in the sociology of consumers, best known for his promotional campaigns for Barilla and the creation of its Mulino Bianco brand. Fabris kept the IRVV and the Sicilian wine industry informed of market trends. He also developed mechanisms such as conferences that communicated the improvements in Sicilian wine to the trade and consumers.
THE IMPACT OF GIACOMO TACHIS
Giacomo Tachis, as the most celebrated enologist in Italy, the architect of Tignanello and Sassicaia and other legendary wines, was the idol of young Sicilian enologists, wine professionals, the wine press, and connoisseurs of Italian wine. Though the Marchesi Antinori company had been the principal driving force behind the rise of Tuscan wine during the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s, Tachis was the technical architect of the style of wines for which Marchesi Antinori became known.
Without Tachis, Italy's entry into the post-World War II international wine market would have been delayed. Of Greek ancestry, born and educated in Piedmont, he had a profound respect for French wine. In the early 1950s be began a lifelong correspondence with Emile Peynaud, a professor at the University of Bordeaux and a consultant to some of the most important Bordeaux châteaux. Peynaud, as a teacher and a friend, passed on to Tachis his perspectives and methods. In the 1960s and 1970s, Peynaud was the pivot point for changes in Bordeaux enology. His influence did much to alter Bordeaux's red wine flavor profile. He advocated harvesting at higher than customary levels of ripeness, complete control of malolactic fermentation, maceration customized to grape skin conditions, and maturation that effectively used oxygenation, all of which helped to protect and preserve ripe fruit character of the wine while making its palate supple yet dense and pleasantly tactile. From Peynaud's perspective, vegetal smells, excessive sourness (high acidity), bitterness, thinness (low alcohol), and coarse-textured astringency were to be avoided in red wines. Tachis translated the Peynaud model into the enological context of Italy.
Tachis saw his job consulting for the IRVV as an exciting challenge. Both he and Planeta felt that for Sicily to be taken seriously as a quality producer on the world stage, great red wines with a distinctly Sicilian taste would have to be developed. During the early 1990s, about 80 percent of the vineyards in Sicily were planted with white grapes. Given Sicily's history of bulk wine and little else, Tachis had a relatively blank slate to work with.
Tachis was familiar with the climatic parameters of Sicily. Its ample sunlight and heat and lack of summer and harvest rain were similar to the climate of the Tuscan coast, where he had done much of his pioneering work on the Super Tuscan wine Sassicaia. In Sicily, grape skins and seeds become so physiologically mature that anthocyanins, the dominant pigment compounds in most grape skins, are easily extractable. Traditionally, Sicilian red wine maceration periods were brief, usually one to three days. A lack of temperature control and hygiene had made long macerations unsafe. Tachis preferred higher than normal pHs in red wines so that the expression of sourness did not cover or confuse that of astringency. He knew that the developed tannins of Sicilian red wines would need less maturation time in new barrel and less aging in bottle. With the wine having less contact with new oak, oak smells would mask fruit smells less. Wines could be released earlier than would be the case in northern Italy.
When considering Tachis, we have to remember that his inspiration was the red wine of Bordeaux. He was, comparatively speaking, less familiar with Burgundy varieties and Burgundian wine technology. In Tuscany he had often recommended that Sangiovese wines include some Bordeaux varieties, particularly Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, to add color and texture. Similarly, because of his great familiarity with Bordeaux wine technology, he also prescribed Bordeaux techniques when making Sangiovese wine. For example, he generally advocated pump-over and closed fermentation vats, typical to Bordeaux, over punch-down and open fermentation vats, typical to Burgundy. Tachis was an important influence who pushed traditional Tuscan wine flavor in a Bordelais direction, which was more likely to be appreciated by international wine critics and non-Italian consumers.
Like his master Peynaud, Tachis had more expertise in dry red than dry white wine production. Bordeaux wine producers had not put great effort into producing top-quality dry white wines until the mid-1980s, when they adopted Burgundian barrel fermentation techniques, particularly in the Pessac-Léognan appellation. While the world model for top-quality red wine has been Bordeaux, the world model for top-quality dry white wine has been Burgundian barrel-fermented Chardonnay. Though Tachis consulted for estates, such as Querciabella in Tuscany, that made excellent barrel-fermented Chardonnays, he was not recognized as a white wine specialist. Nor was he known for his expertise in rose, sparkling, or fortified wine production.
However, he took a special interest in and had great appreciation for what are commonly called dessert wines. In this case, dessert wines refers to a category that contains dry as well as sweet wines and those that are often consumed by themselves or as an aperitif with a small plate of cheese, fruit, and nuts. These wine types had a long history of production in the Mediterranean area. Tachis studied these wine types from historical and cultural perspectives. He wrote a book about Vin Santo, a traditional wine typical to Italy, particularly Tuscany. Vin Santo wines can range from dry to sweet. Like many Mediterranean dessert wines, they are made by fermenting dried or semidried grapes. Though Tachis has a profound understanding of and appreciation for historic techniques and styles of dessert wines, when consulting for clients he would recommend moving their wines toward a profile that he thought modern markets would better appreciate. This profile emphasized golden-yellow over amber coloration, fresh fruit over nutty aromas and the piercing pungency of volatile acidity, and levels of acidity that supported sweetness and gave length to the finish. He favored carefully monitoring and controlling the desiccation of grapes. He advised producers to avoid conditions in which the coincidence of direct sunlight and intense heat limits enzymatic activity in the grape skins and increases oxidation. Such enzymatic activity releases exotic flavors from the skins. He also recommended fermentation and maturation practices that reduced oxidation and the loss of fruit. He encouraged producers to have an open mind regarding the use of selected yeasts. He advised low-temperature fermentation and maturation in cool environments where oxygen contact was controlled.
It was with these predilections that Tachis assessed the microvinifications at Virzi in 1992 and subsequent years. He identified Nero d'Avola as the variety that expressed Sicilianness for red wines. The focus of its use was in southeast Sicily. As he had in Tuscany, Tachis prescribed additions of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah to supply more depth of color and more structure, principally astringency. He believed that Nero d'Avola would be less successful in the market as a monovarietal wine. Tachis did not see much potential for Nerello Mascalese, the principal variety in the Etna area. For him, its color was too pale, its palate too sour, and its texture too harshly astringent. On the other hand, he was fond of Frappato, a variety historic to the Vittoria area. He liked its fresh fruitiness and acidity. Tachis gave rave reviews to several samples of Pinot Noir grown at Castiglione di Sicilia in the Etna area. He put forward the possibility that Etna Pinot Noir could one day rival red Burgundy.
Though Duca di Salaparuta's Duca Enricos of the late 1980s and early 1990s had quietly demonstrated that Nero d'Avola could be successful as a principal variety and even as a monovarietal wine, Tachis's advocacy convinced Sicilian winemakers that Nero d'Avola was the Sicilian quality red grape. Inspired by his advice, farmers and wine producers planted it nearly everywhere. They planted it in locations both good for the variety and bad. Because journalists were awarding high marks to dark, thick, ripe, and alcoholic wines, producers across Sicily making Nero d'Avola wine did what they could