On April 13, in Portoferraio on Elba Island, a wine event featuring Elba Aleatico, the only dessert wine to enjoy DOCG quality status in Italy, will mark the 200th anniversary of Napoleon’s exile there.
Sixteen wine producers, all members of the Elba DOC wines consortium, will gather in the cloister of Portoferraio’s De Laugier cultural centre to sample desserts and chocolate together with their wines. Elba’s restaurants belonging to the Vetrina Toscana network will showcase Aleatico wine on their menus.
Elba Island was once covered with Aleatico vineyards, and the islanders would always have a bottle on hand for special occasions. The local product was even said to have been Napoleon’s tipple of choice. Legend has it that, upon arriving on the island to begin his exile in May 1814, he espied a vast walled vineyard through his telescope; upon tasting the wine, he was not disappointed.
The event organizers hope to revive interest in the historic wine and attract commercial interest in Aleatico wine-making on Elba Island: production is down to about 60,000 bottles a year.
