Sangue di Giuda DOC

A sweet, lightly sparkling red from the Oltrepò Pavese with the most arresting name in Italian wine: Blood of Judas. It was a style within the Oltrepò Pavese DOC from 1970 and, as the registered file records, became an autonomous DOC in 2010 for its historical importance.

The Name The usual explanation ties it to Broni, where local tradition holds that Judas repented and was forgiven, the wine standing as a symbol of that redemption. Others read it more simply as a warning about how easily a sweet, low-alcohol, delicious red goes down. Neither account is documented, and both are repeated locally with equal conviction.

The Terroir The file gives the Oltrepò description shared across the 2010 denominations: hill country with dry winters, ventilated summers and large diurnal swings, worked with traditional training, planting densities and pruning, where the production yields give the wine its complexity. The zone sits in the Lombard Apennine foothills south of the Po, on calcareous clay and marl.

Grape Varieties Croatina leads, with Barbera, Uva Rara and Vespolina completing the blend — the same cast as the zone’s dry reds, handled to a different end. Fermentation is arrested with sugar remaining, and the wine is finished lightly sparkling and low in alcohol, usually around 8 to 10 per cent.

The Critical Take Sweet sparkling red is a category the international market has decided it does not want, which is why Sangue di Giuda is almost never exported and is drunk in enormous quantity within fifty kilometres of where it is made. Taken on its own terms it is very good: dark, foaming, tasting of blackberry and violet, sweet without being cloying because Croatina and Barbera between them keep the acidity up. It is a wine to stop apologising for.

How It Is Made The method is closer to Brachetto or Moscato than to a fortified wine: fermentation is arrested by chilling while sugar remains, so the sweetness is entirely from the grape and the alcohol stays low. The bubble comes from a partial second fermentation in pressurised tank. Nothing is fortified and nothing is added, which is why the wine tastes of fruit rather than spirit and why it should be drunk young — the primary fruit is the whole of the appeal.

At the Table The local answer is dessert, and specifically the dry biscuits and fruit tarts of the Pavese. It also does what few wines can and stands up to dark chocolate. Serve it properly cold, 10–12°C, and drink it within a year or two of the vintage.

Benchmark Producers Bruno Verdi, Vercesi del Castellazzo, Fiamberti, Quaquarini.