I met Enantio almost thirty years ago, thanks to Cantina Roeno. I’ll say it upfront, because I’m not neutral here: without the Fugatti family, this grape variety would today probably still be a name confined to old ampelography treatises, or at best an anonymous blending grape.
A bit of history, because it matters. In the first century AD, Pliny the Elder wrote of a wild vine called oenanthium. For centuries, Enantio was known as Lambrusco a Foglia Frastagliata, grown in the Terradeiforti, that narrow, distinctive strip of land connecting the Veronese Valdadige to the Trentino Vallagarina. A variety that survived phylloxera in ungrafted, own-rooted vineyards, and that came close to disappearing altogether. Its revival has a precise date: 1991, when the application for inclusion in the National Catalogue was submitted, granted the following year. Behind that application stood a small, stubborn group of producers. Roeno was at the forefront.
When I first tasted it, I expected an “ancient” wine, in the worst sense of the word, rustic, hard, more a story to tell than a wine to drink. Instead, I found myself facing a red of striking contemporary character. That was the lesson Roeno taught me: a grape variety’s history has little to do with how modern it can taste in the glass. The two can coexist, and when they do, the result is wines with something extra.
With Red Point, Roeno takes things a step further. Pure Enantio, hand-harvested, fermented in temperature-controlled steel, followed by malolactic fermentation and aging in second-passage French oak tonneaux. A smart choice: the wood rounds out the dense, vigorous tannin that Enantio carries from its wild-vine origins, without masking it.
In the glass, it’s deep ruby. On the nose, it’s complex, with small berry fruit up front, followed by spice notes veering toward incense and tobacco, with a touch of balsamic character. On the palate, it’s full-bodied and structured, but what stands out is the balance: the acidity is lively, the tannic structure present yet composed, the finish long. This isn’t a wine that draws attention through power. It draws attention through measure.
And here’s the point. Red Point isn’t a good Enantio. It’s a great Italian red that happens to be made from Enantio. It can rightfully sit within a fine selection of the country’s best reds, and it does so at a price, around 19 euros, that today, for a wine of this caliber, feels almost provocative. Twenty thousand bottles: not a collector’s rarity, but a wine meant to be drunk.
The greatest merit of this wine, though, lies elsewhere. It proves once again the high vocation of the Terradeiforti. A small territory, one few could place on a map, yet one that has every credential to stand among Italy’s great red-wine zones. Roeno has championed it for sixty years, through actions before words.
To anyone who thinks they’ve already tasted everything Italy has to offer, I’d start right here.
We tasted it paired with an excellent mixed grill. An almost obvious choice, one might say, for a red of this structure. And indeed, it proved the right call: the charred meat called out the tannin, the tannin answered, and the wine’s freshness cleansed the palate between bites. A successful pairing, no hesitation.
Company Profile
Roeno was founded over sixty years ago in Valdadige Terradeiforti by the Fugatti family. Today, the second and third generations lead the winery with passion and innovation. Its symbol is Enantio, an ancient native grape grown in century-old ungrafted vineyards. An authentic wine that expresses the history and identity of this land.
CANTINA ROENO
https://www.cantinaroeno.com/it
Via Mama, 5 – Loc. Belluno Veronese | 37020 BRENTINO BELLUNO (VR)
045 723 01 10 – info@cantinaroeno.com
