Venissa is an property like no different, crafting wine from the indigenous Dorona grape grown on islands within the Venice Lagoon. Sophie Thorpe spoke to Matteo Bisol about his household’s mission to protect this distinctive Venetian custom
“I met Anselme Selosse once I was 13 and that basically entered in my coronary heart. He’s actually a particular individual that modified the world of wine [for me],” Matteo Bisol tells me. It’s maybe not what you’d count on of the younger winemaker who represents the twenty first technology of the Bisol household – a household that made their identify with, and has turn into synonymous with, fantastic Prosecco.
Assembly the long-lasting Champagne producer – thought-about by many the pioneer behind the area’s grower motion – has caught in Bisol’s thoughts, nevertheless. Partly, he believes, as a result of he was at simply the suitable age – partway between youngster and grownup, his thoughts open to new concepts. “He was at all times speaking about wine as a dwelling factor, ,” Bisol says. “I bought it and I at all times thought it was crucial.”
He’s been immersed within the household enterprise so long as he can bear in mind. From the age of 10, he spent his summers working within the Bisol vineyard. “As soon as I arrived within the morning 5 minutes late and my father fired me. After which he employed me once more as a result of he didn’t need me to depart, being at dwelling doing nothing,” says Bisol, laughing on the reminiscence.
Matteo Bisol amongst the vines at Venissa
However Matteo Bisol has left the hills of Valdobbiadene behind, now in control of his household’s very private undertaking: Venissa. It was Matteo’s father, Gianluca that launched into the journey over 15 years in the past – however considerably accidentally. He was visiting the island of Torcello, which is dwelling to one of many oldest church buildings in Venice – based in 639 AD. “In entrance of the basilica, there’s a good looking backyard – just a little bit hidden – however he noticed some vine leaves,” Bisol explains. “He knocked on the door of the proprietor and launched himself.” Gianluca spoke to the girl that owned the backyard, who informed him that a couple of of the vines had been an area golden-skinned selection – Dorona. And down the rabbit gap, he went…
He began researching the grape and its historical past – discovering that viticulture had lengthy been part of life within the Venice Lagoon. For nearly 2,500 years, vines had been grown on the islands – an integral factor of the area’s tradition. Earlier than motors and speedboats, the islands had been a three-hour journey from the mainland, so remoted that that they had a very completely different tradition – “a tradition primarily based on nature, primarily based on farming”, Bisol explains. Their isolation compelled self-sufficiency, with each little bit of house on every island used to develop one thing. With faith integral to Venice and certainly Italy’s historical past, wine – used for twice each day mass – was an important a part of life.
This historical past lives on in native nomenclature: one of many islands is known as Le Vignole, one was referred to as Vigna Murata (now Lazzaretto Nuovo), San Francesco del Deserto was beforehand referred to as Isola delle Due Vigne, a street on Murano is known as By way of della Vigne. Many islanders made wine, with presses for the fruit of the vines of their again backyard or area. However because the islands of the lagoon grew to become much less distant, with the zip of an engine, most of the vineyards had been pulled up, and people who remained had been destroyed by the catastrophic floods of 1966.
After this preliminary discovery, Gianluca Bisol began in search of out Dorona vines – a quest that Matteo remembers vividly. “Actually from the start, I used to be on the boat, with the bicycles on Sant’Erasmo on the lookout for extra Dorona grapes,” he says, describing their seek for a range that was – on the time – getting ready to extinction. It was a farmer, Gastone, on the island of Sant’Erasmo who actually opened Gianluca’s eyes to working with Dorona. He was one of many final farmers in Venice to nonetheless make wine for private consumption.
The golden-skinned Dorona di Venezia, Venice’s native grape that the Bisol household rescued from extinction
“An excellent particular person, a really stunning particular person and really clever – he launched us to the Dorona historical past and to the way in which he was making the wine previously,” Bisol tells me. Thereafter, Gianluca hunted down cuttings and finally –in 2006-2007 – planted 0.8 hectares of Dorona on the island of Mazzorbo.
It was custom – moderately than present fashions – that led them to make a white wine with prolonged pores and skin contact. The wine had at all times been made with pores and skin contact, they usually determined to push it additional, with a month of maceration, extracting as a lot flavour as potential from the distinctive selection. Additionally they determined that the wines wanted time to search out their stability after such a protracted interval of maceration. They thought-about barrel ageing, however didn’t need to change the profile of the wines with the flavour of oak, so as an alternative opted for concrete – and two years’ élevage.
The ensuing wines have a fantastic phenolic grip and distinct mineral, even saline, freshness, with a nutty complexity that’s harking back to mature white Hermitage, Burgundy or Jura Savagnin and Chardonnay – but additionally not like the rest. It’s this distinctive character that Bisol feels is why the wine is so successful. “We by no means tried to suit Venissa in any class… we simply make the wine that we really feel is the suitable factor for Venissa grapes,” he says
For the reason that first classic in 2010, and when Matteo took over in 2013, they’ve learnt an enormous quantity. “There are components of the winery – completely different parcels – which have a decrease salt focus within the soil,” Bisol explains. The extra saline soils limit the yield, producing smaller and much more concentrated berries. It was this discovery that led to the introduction of Venusa, a second wine that’s made for earlier ingesting, in 2017 and comes from the much less saline plots. In fact, with two wines, it signifies that the already tiny volumes of the highest white, Venissa Bianco, are even smaller – with simply 2,000 bottles made a 12 months. “It’s such a small winery that we all know the vegetation one after the other,” Bisol says, with an virtually paternal fondness.
With every classic, as nicely, they’ve pushed high quality even additional – studying methods to get probably the most from the beforehand virtually extinct Dorona. They’ve been making the wine for 20 years, however – as Bisol says – “Twenty years means you made it 20 occasions. Twenty occasions is nothing. Yearly we see how the wine is responding, and we study yearly extra issues that permit us to make higher and higher wines.”
And making wine on this outstanding place, with its salt-soaked soils, is much from simple – one thing that the flood, or “acquaalta”, of November 2019 introduced vividly to life. Though the winery is shielded by a wall, it couldn’t maintain again the water – and as soon as receded they needed to wash the vines one after the other with recent water, and the soil as nicely, to attempt to take away the doubtless catastrophically excessive salt content material. It was solely when the vines emerged from dormancy within the spring that they knew whether or not or not they’d performed sufficient to avoid wasting them.
The gorgeous Venissa Bianco bottles, every one bearing a hand-beaten goldleaf design
“It additionally reminded us how resilient this grape selection is, which is definitely the resilience of Venice – which has been a metropolis or republic for greater than 1,000 years,” Bisol says. The Dorona grape, just like the area’s individuals, has tailored to its environment. Happily, with the introduction of MOSE in 2020, the town’s barrier system designed to protect it from excessive tides, flooding hasn’t threatened their crop – and winery – since.
It’s clear speaking to Bisol, that Venissa is rather more than a wine. Not solely is it an emblem of Venice’s resilience, however a undertaking to protect the town’s nice traditions.The glass bottles come from the island of Murano, but it surely’s the labels which are notably particular. They work with Marino Menegazzo of Mario Berta Battiloro, the final goldbeater not simply in Venice, however Europe – who hammers out a sheet of goldleaf for each bottle they produce, from the workshop that when was dwelling to Titian. The design adjustments every year, with the leaf for every bottle very barely completely different because of its hand-crafted nature. With Marino Menegazzo in his 70s, and nobody to inherit the household enterprise, this custom – just like the Dorona wines – is in danger.
“This a part of the historical past of Venice, it’s an historical past that is essential and our function at Venissa is de facto to maintain this historical past alive,” Bisol says. “For us, winemaking is de facto necessary, after all my household comes from winemaking, it has a historical past of 500 years in winemaking. However after we realised the historical past that was behind this metropolis, behind agriculture and grape rising, and behind all these different handcrafting strategies, it grew to become much more necessary for Venissa, as our function of preserving the heritage moderately than simply making a wine… We actually imagine that preserving our custom is much more necessary than winemaking.”
Whereas the household began with simply 0.8 hectares on Mazzorbo, they quickly began making a crimson from 2.75 hectares on Santa Cristina (with vines that had been beforehand farmed by the Swarovski household). Now, they’ve planted Dorona on two extra islands, harvesting the fruit for the primary time this 12 months. Below the Bisol household’s protecting eye, it’s clear that this particular Venetian custom has discovered its guardian angel.
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