IF there is one alternative grape variety that is suited to Australia, then the Italian white grape fiano holds all the aces. It grows well in a warm climate, retains acidity and can be picked early or left to ripen on the vine. In the winery it can be fermented in stainless steel to retain its freshness, rested on lees, or given oak treatment; some people also think it ages well. In comparison to other grape varieties, it could be compared to chardonnay, being a winemakers’ grape or has the split personality of pinot gris/grigio.
The region famous for fiano is Campania in southern Italy. The grape varieties home is in the province of Irpinia and the Fiano di Avellino DOCG which lies in-land from Napoli, the third largest city in Italy, and its famous Amalfi coast. Away from the coastline Campania is dominated by rolling hills and mountains with vineyards planted up to 700m which mitigates the dry Mediterranean climate. Soils are typically volcanic with clay. Clay retains moisture so is a cool soil and slow to warm up, which helps retain acidity in the grapes. Fiano di Avellino, along with Greco di Tufo, located to the north of Avellino, make up the most important white wines of Campania.
Fiano has a long history and was known to the Romans as Apianum. The etymology of the word is complex, and there are a number of explanations ranging from the grape’s attraction to bees or wasps; to a family of grapes called Apianes that originally came from the Peloponnese region in Greece. It is lucky to have survived as it nearly became extinct in the middle of the last century. During the 1940 and 1950’s local grape grower and winemaker Antonio Mastroberardino resisted government calls to plant more productive grape varieties and encouraged other local grape growers to stick with the indigenous grapes and to plant more, paying them a higher price to do so. This saw fiano, as well as greco and aglianico survive. Feudi de San Gregorio is another notable producer in the region renowned for their fiano.
Fiano is now cropping up in all states in Australia, which demonstrates its adaptability. It sits third in popularity behind prosecco and sangiovese. Peter Lloyd, General Manager at Coriole, makes a strong case for fiano and reckons that McLaren Vale can claim to be the Australian ‘home’ to the variety. “Its low yielding which may explain why it was rapidly falling out of production in Campania. Aside from that it is an absolute delight to grow. Tall proud upright structure, even spacing of shoots, loose open bunches make it a very good candidate for organic viticulture. Quite drought tolerant as well and high natural acidity.” It is this ability to retain its natural acidity in hot climates that is attractive to Australian producers. The only downsides I’ve been able to discover is the tendency to have brittle canes and can produce a second crop as well; as being a little susceptible to powdery mildew.
The first successful Australian fiano was produced by Mark Lloyd at Coriole. He tells me there are a couple of clones currently available in Australia. “Fiano VCR 3 was bought into the country by Chalmers Nursery in Mildura around 20 years ago. Whilst Fiano Savii 01 was imported by the CSIRO in the 1970s and probably originally from UC Davis campus in California,” he explains. Mark was attracted to the variety after tasting it at VinItaly in 2000. “The Savii was the one that was available when I decided to plant after visiting VinItaly. The Vine Improvement Society informed me that there was no vineyard but there were some vines in the collection at Merbein and they would be able to grow some material up for me.”
Kim Chalmers from Chalmers in Victoria says fiano is the pick of all the vines they grow. “We have six and a half hectares at two sites, Merbein and Heathcote.” Last year they sold fiano grapes to over 30 other wineries as well as making two wines of their own, a method traditional sparkling wine and a dry white, which sees extended lees contact, oak and bottle age before release.
Usually, Italian whites are categorised as non-aromatic. But fiano gives more aromas than we would normally expect, especially if the grapes are late picked. Coriole Fiano displays grapefruit, hazelnut, ginger, pear, chamomile, dried grass according to Peter. “We were pretty impressed from the get-go and haven’t seen any major changes with vine age. We ferment around 20% of our fiano in seasoned oak, we like the development of texture we get here. We also like stainless steel to retain freshness and vibrant aromatics. Fiano has the capacity to be a full flavoured, highly powerful white and measured use of oak can play an important role here. We’ve built the confidence to pick a little later as we’ve gone along. Picked very early fiano can be almost sauvignon blanc-like in its aromatics, we want fiano to show richness and depth of texture and given its high natural acidity we can push the baumé. Fiano can be prone to stuck ferments so it’s always a good idea to inoculate rather than try to pursue a wild ferment.” I agree here. I’ve seen some early picked fiano that had incredibly high acid and it doesn’t seem to suit the variety or set it apart from other herbaceous varieties. The variety needs middle palate richness derived from increased baumé levels.
Kim Chalmers summarises fiano as having, “typical beeswax, almond meal. Sometimes pithy lemon, a hint floral and, as it gets riper, white stone fruit”. She also sees fiano expressing vineyard soils. “At Merbein it is planted on sandy limestone which brings out the fruit, whilst on Heathcote’s Cambrian soils it holds its acidity well and has more minerality and chalkiness.”
There is some support in McLaren Vale being the epicentre of production of the variety with twenty-two producers in the region making a fiano. Nationwide there is over one hundred making the variety now. A clear indication that fiano has found a home in Australia.