Merlara

Styles

Principal grape varieties

Terroir

• The terrain is flat, though it displays a certain variability in elevation and natural slopes.
• Recognised vineyard sites exclude waterlogged soils with excessively fine texture and a high water table, as well as soils that are too light with a deep water table.
• The soils, shaped by the passage of the Adige and Fratta rivers, range from sandy to clayey and are predominantly sandy with varying proportions of silt.
• The vineyard-suited soils are deep, with a significant clay content, and are selected from among the best-structured and most uniform plots.
• The climate is temperate-Mediterranean, with warm summers and mild winters, a fairly wide annual temperature range, and rainfall that is relatively modest but well distributed throughout the year.

• The cooperative winery founded in Merlara in the 1950s played a key role in enhancing the winemaking output of the area and in promoting the establishment of the appellation.
• Alongside traditional varieties such as Tocai, Merlot, and Cabernet, producers have selected Malvasia Istriana and Marzemino, which have become two defining territorial markers for this area.
• Merlara Novello requires a pre-vinification phase by carbonic maceration, which yields a wine with the aroma of the grape berry and softness on the palate.

• Merlara Tai presents a straw-yellow colour with greenish highlights, an intense bouquet, and a full, soft palate.
• Marzemino Frizzante is a light, aromatic red wine, harvested a few days before full ripeness in order to retain the acidity needed to preserve its bouquet and liveliness in the bottle.
• Cabernet is an intense ruby-red, tending towards garnet with age, with a dry, full-bodied palate, while Merlot is ruby in colour with an intense and pleasantly approachable palate.

• The young white wines show floral and fruity notes and a distinctive savouriness derived from the influence of the alluvial soils with their predominantly sandy character.
• Thanks to the interplay of climate and soil, and to the predominantly clayey terrain, red-grape varieties generally reach ripeness a few days earlier than in comparable areas.

Facts drawn from the specification's terroir-link section by automatic interpretation — see the source.

All appellations in Italy

Sources

• eAmbrosia register (EU) — File number PDO-IT-A0440
• Official trade body site — Consorzio Tutela Vini Merlara DOC