Schiava

Schiava is the everyday light red of Italy's Alpine north — Alto Adige (South Tyrol), where it is known by its German name Vernatsch and, across the border in Germany's Württemberg, as Trollinger. It is not one grape but a small family of related varieties, the most planted of which is Schiava Grossa. The wines are pale and luminous, low in tannin, light in body and fragrant with strawberry, red cherry, candied violet and a whisper of almond. Best served lightly chilled and drunk young, it is a soft, easygoing red that doubles as a summer aperitif and a foil for the cured speck and dumplings of its mountain homeland.