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Vicenza wine

Want to know if anyone remember the wine CLINTON that was produced in the Veneto region years ago. I left Vicenza over 50 years ago, a couple of years ago I returned and asked about the wine Clinton, I was told that a few years back the governament had the farmers remove all the vines and destroy them, It seem that the wine had some hallucinants in it. We used to drink it, it was a heavy strong red and cheaper than the other wines, this wine was not bottled, but sold by the litro and mezzo litro. We had these grapes in our small farm, and dad would make about 100 gallons of this wine, (we had no machinery so we kids had to mash the grapes with our feet, and because of the heavy color of the grapes our feet and legs were purple for at least three weeks. Oh the good old times Sergio Vicentino Magnagatti

Reply to
<sperozzo
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Clinton now has been cultivated with the hybrid "Monica" grape using the prophalactic thong technique perfected by the late Dutchess of Windsor. Unimpeachable sources say the results are very shortlived and a bit flaccid. (Smile)

Reply to
Joe Beppe Rosenberg

Sorry, Caro Sergio, you didn't like my attempt at humour. Although Burton Anderson writes about Clinton in his classic book on Italian wine, Vino, I do not think I have seen it commercially available for export to the US. I suspect that with the vast interest with inexpensive wines from the Veneto region, I represented several wineries in Italy, Clinton vines probably were replaced with merlot and/or pinot grigio much as plantings of rare varieties in California were replaced by chardonnay and zinfandel in the 1980's.

Reply to
Joe Beppe Rosenberg

ha scritto:

Pay attention because Clinton wine develop a lot of methanol, dangerous for your health. Now it is outlawed here in Italy.

Ciao Cesare

Reply to
Cesare

The bit about methanol is a fabrication by the government. Much like the idea that absynthe is dangerous.

I have just picked up some Jacquet and some Clinton made by an association of winemakers that have kept small parcels of these hybrids from the time of the phylloxera scare. At low yields, some of these wines are not bad at all. I will be serving some to a crowd of

100 in PAris next monday (among some real wines...).

Mike

Reply to
Mike Tommasi

I agree with you Mike, both Burton Anderson who says it has a similarity to Fragolino and Jancis Robinson who mentions plantings in Itlian areas of Switzerland say anything about illegality. Clinton is a labrusca family grape and was bought into Europe during the phyloxera scare. Enjoy Paris!!!

Reply to
Joe Beppe Rosenberg

This morning I talked with a cousin from Vicenza, and I mentioned the Clinton grapes, he said that they are outlawed, ( because after you drank a few glasses, you would see pink elephants) but some farmers do still have some way out of the way, and they make it for home use only, and for friends, He said that he does not drink it (he is sort of snobbish). I'll be visiting the area next spring,and I'll be searching for a few bottle to bring back.

I want to thanks everyone for answering my mail Ciao Sergio

Reply to
<sperozzo

Sergio,

I confirm what I already stated, it is definitely outlawed. Not only is it illegal to sell it as wine (not vinifera!) but it is illegal to sell it, period, even if it were called fermented grape juice.

The problem with clinton wine or fragolino is not with the grape at all , it is just that a tradition developed of making absolutely atrocious wine with it. My point is that properly made, the "wine" is not bad. Not great, and an unfamiliar aroma, but nevertheless not bad.

Have fun.

Mike

Reply to
Mike Tommasi

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