Wine: 'Slow wine is made with traditional methods and lots of good sense'

It is 25 years since the opening of a McDonald's in Rome prompted the start of the slow food movement. Championing ethics, ecology, gastronomy and regional products, its membership has grown to 100,000 spread across 150 countries. Although only 2,000 of those members are in the UK, there are a dozen "branches" in Scotland.

There have been links to wine from the outset but, to provide a fresh approach, a new style guide (in Italian) was launched last year. Although Slow Wine 2011 currently involves only Italian producers, it does adopt a different approach. The focus is on the wineries rather than wines, and it eschews the "marks out of 100" format, utilising instead qualitative based symbols to identify something special (a bottle for quality, a coin for value and a snail for that special harmony). To prove that tradition and technology are compatible, Slow Wine 2011 came out last week as an iPhone application usable here.

Slow wine itself is hard to define but several underlying principles seem to unify producers. There is a determination to reflect faithfully the wine's context and its local soil and microclimate. Although not all slow wines are fully organic, one detects a strong belief that chemical intervention breaches the bond between grape varieties and their territory. As one respected Tuscan producer says: "Slow wine is made with traditional and natural methods and lots of good sense."

Among the 1,800 wineries represented in the guide, few growers epitomise the slow wine concept better than Trentino's Elisabetta Foradori. Taking over the family business at 19 after her father's premature death, she quickly focused on local grape varieties. Having gone fully biodynamic in 2000, she poet- ically told me her job is "steering, but not pushing, the wine to express its personality".

Her white grapes are manzoni bianco - a cross between riesling and pinot blanc - and, recently, another rare local variety, the complex and aromatic nosiola. Although the red grape she uses - teroldego (a brother-in-law of shiraz) - was already grown on the estate, Foradori was unhappy with its quality. There followed a lengthy and painstaking propagation process which now delivers her flagship version, granato, that can fetch 50 a bottle. For a less expensive example try Teroldego Rotiliano DOC 2006 (17.50, www.gooditalianwine.com).

The patience invested in that process is a reason women particularly are attracted to slow wine. According to Matilde Poggi, men are seldom ready to "listen to the land" and nurture its products in the same way. Poggi produces bardolino in the hills behind Lake Garda and is delighted to see wine re-inventing itself. Bardolino is a good case for slow wine treatment and deserves to be back in the limelight. It is lowish in alcohol (usually 12 per cent) and though its peppery, sour cherry flavours work best with food, it is versatile enough to fit well with fish, pasta, white meat and even soup.

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on March 13, 2011 See for yourself with the excellent Bardolino Le Fraghe 2009 (8.95, The Wine Society).

This devotion to careful production is not, however, exclusive to women. Chianti producer Giovanni Manetti of Fontodi sees slow wine as being about constantly improving quality without disturbing the underlying natural balance. An example of his own efforts to do so can be found in the bramble and black cherry-charged Chianti Classico Fontodi (19.95, Valvona & Crolla).

So, if a more measured pace of life (and wine from the slow lane) appeals to you, get to grips with the content of Slow Wine 2011 or, better still, have the information at your fingertips with the iPhone application. n

2010 Boschendal 1685 Sauvignon Blanc Grande Cuvee Paarl, South Africa, 13.5 per cent: Classy, complex, second level sauvignon offering intense, rounded flavours of lemon with orange undertones. 8.99, Sainsbury's

2010 Fragoso Merlot Mendoza, Argentina, 12.5 per cent: A light, fresh, juicy red with attractive cherry flavours and a hint of cloves. 4.99 (was 6.99, until 3 April), M&S

2010 McPherson Basilisk Chardonnay Victoria State, Australia, 13 per cent Smooth, creamy and rich with generous tropical fruit and a touch of spice. 9.99, Rhymers Fayre (Abbey Wines) Melrose

• This article was first published in the Scotland on Sunday on March 12, 2011