Biferno DOC

Molise’s principal denomination, covering roughly a third of the province of Campobasso along the valley of the river Biferno, which runs from the Matese massif to the Adriatic at Termoli. Molise is the smallest and least examined wine region on the mainland, and this is where most of what it makes with ambition comes from.

The Terroir The registered file gives numbers rather than adjectives, which is welcome. The area, equal to about one third of the province of Campobasso, has fairly homogeneous orography and pedology but is characterised by somewhat different climatic conditions: mean annual temperature of 13.5 to 14.8°C and mean annual rainfall of 697 to 1,067 mm. Those ranges, it says, combined with the differing nature of the soils and the exposure, significantly influence the quality of the grapes. A 370-millimetre spread in rainfall inside one denomination is a large variable, and it is the honest reason Biferno is inconsistent.

Grape Varieties The red, which is the wine that matters, is Montepulciano led, with Aglianico in support and a small proportion of Trebbiano permitted — an old central-southern formula in which a little white grape lifts a heavy red. The white is Trebbiano with Bombino Bianco, Malvasia and Falanghina. The file describes the red as ruby moving to garnet with age, ethereal when aged, dry, harmonious and velvety.

Montepulciano Meets Aglianico This blend is the interesting thing here and it exists almost nowhere else. Montepulciano supplies colour, plum and soft tannin but little acidity; Aglianico supplies acidity, structure and a savoury, iron-like grip. Where Abruzzo makes Montepulciano alone and Campania makes Aglianico alone, Molise sits between the two and uses both. In good hands the result is more complete than either — a mid-weight, savoury red that ages ten years without drying out.

The Critical Take Molise has one internationally known producer and everyone else sells in bulk, which is the whole problem in a sentence. The region has good hillside land, an intelligent blend and real altitude behind the coast, and it has never had the capital or the organisation to make anything of it. Biferno at its best is excellent and cheap; Biferno at its average is anonymous, and there is no reliable way to tell from the label. Buy by producer, not by name.

The Other Molise The region’s more distinctive card is Tintilia, a native red grown above 400 metres that has its own denomination and no relation to anything else in Italy. Between Tintilia inland and Biferno along the river, Molise has two genuine arguments; it makes them very quietly.

At the Table Molisano cooking: lamb and kid, cavatelli with ragù, pampanella, Adriatic fish for the white, and caciocavallo di Agnone. Serve the red at 16–17°C.

Benchmark Producers Di Majo Norante at Campomarino, effectively the region’s ambassador, and Borgo di Colloredo.