Portofino DOC

The denomination of the Tigullio, the eastern Ligurian gulf that runs from Portofino down through Santa Margherita, Rapallo and Chiavari to Sestri Levante. It is registered under two names — Golfo del Tigullio-Portofino and simply Portofino — and it covers white, red, rosé, sparkling, frizzante and passito.

The Terroir The registered file reads like a survey and gives real numbers. The hill substrates are marine sediments, partly clayey and partly calcareous-marly; the soils are of moderate depth with good drainage and a fine-loam texture. Vineyards sit anywhere from sea level to a thousand metres, but the prevailing band is 100 to 200 metres. Mean temperature is about 14°C, with rainfall peaking in April at around 230 mm and falling to an average of 22 mm in July. That is a genuinely severe summer drought moderated by the sea, on thin soil, on terraces.

The History The file dates the vineyard here to the late Middle Ages, from which point vine growing spread through all the areas of the Tigullio. And it names the zone’s defining variety outright: the characteristic ampelographic base is Bianchetta Genovese.

Grape Varieties Bianchetta Genovese first, with Vermentino, Albarola, Bosco and the rare Scimiscià among the whites. Ciliegiolo is the red of consequence — here it is a varietal wine in its own right rather than a Sangiovese blender, and it is the best argument the zone has.

The Critical Take Liguria makes very little wine and drinks nearly all of it, and the Tigullio is where the pressure is worst: this is some of the most expensive land in Italy, and a terrace of Bianchetta cannot compete with a view. What survives is good and specific — the whites are light, saline and briny, built for anchovies rather than for contemplation, and the Ciliegiolo is a revelation to anyone who has only met the grape as a component. Prices are high for what the wine is, and reasonable for what the land costs.

Scimiscià The name means “bedbug” in Genoese dialect, apparently for the smell of the crushed leaves, and the variety was down to a few vines by the 1980s. It has been recovered in small quantity in the Tigullio and gives a taut, herbal, slightly bitter white with unusual ageing capacity. It grows almost nowhere else, and finding a bottle is the reason to take this denomination seriously.

At the Table Ligurian cooking, which is the point: trofie al pesto, anchovies from Monterosso, focaccia di Recco, stuffed vegetables, and fried mixed fish. The Ciliegiolo handles rabbit alla ligure. Whites at 9–11°C, the red at 14–15°C.

Benchmark Producers Bisson at Chiavari, the reference for the whole gulf.