Grape Groups and Families - Native Wine Grapes of Italy - page 82

Malvasia Nera di Lecce (and not Brindisi) is
identical to Tempranillo. Clearly however, if it is
Malvasia Nera di Lecce that is identical to Tem-
pranillo and not Malvasia Nera di Brindisi,
then the two Malvasia s cannot be the same
grape variety. I am tempted to speculate that it
is Malvasia Nera di Lecce that is identical to
Tempranillo, but that Malvasia Nera di Brindisi
is a different variety.
For what it's worth, I'm not wholly con-
vinced Malvasia Nera di Brindisi and Malvasia
Nera di Lecce are one and the same, and a lumi-
nary such as Roberto Bandinelli of the Univer-
sity of Florence, probably Italy's best and most
famous ampelographer, agrees. Bandinelli has
told me fl at out the two varieties cannot be the
same, mainly on morphologic grounds but also
on the basis of the viticultural behavior and aro-
matic nature of the Malvasia from Brindisi as
compared to the one from Lecce. In fact, not
only do the two Malvasia Nera s look different
(very different, to my eyes), but they ripen at
different times in the year. More importantly,
Malvasia Nera di Brindisi is a semi-aromatic
variety while Malvasia Nera di Lecce is a neu-
tral one. In some Tuscan wines where a “Malva-
sia Nera” is included in the blend (unfortu-
nately most everyone in Italy outside Puglia
still uses the Lecce and Brindisi qualifi ers
interchangeably), such as Capannelle's Solare,
Castello di Ama's Vigneto Bellavista Chianti
Classico, and Castellare's I Sodi di San Niccolò,
there is an obviously light aromatic quality
present which I think is brought on by the Mal-
vasia Nera component. Clearly, many experts
believe that the observed differences between
Malvasia Nera di Brindisi and Malvasia Nera di
Lecce are due to environmental infl uence on
the same genotype rather than these two being
distinct varieties. However, since both these
varieties have long been grown in Puglia under
similar viticultural circumstances, it seems
unlikely that higher or lower yields or vastly dif-
ferent soils and exposures might explain, in
this instance at least, grossly different aromatic
expressions between the two. Furthermore, in
the molecular studies performed by Lacombe,

Boursiquot, Laoucou, Dechesne, Varès, and
This (2007), comparing accessions present in
the French grapevine collection of Vassal, the
synonymity between Malvasia Nera di Brindisi
and Malvasia Nera di Lecce was not confi rmed.
In this respect, recent results obtained by
Meneghetti, Poljuha, Frare, Costacurta, Mor-
reale, Bavaresco, and Calò (2012) are even more
noteworthy. These researchers decided to per-
form more extensive molecular analyses aimed
at investigating the differential molecular pro-
fi les between these two Malvasia cultivars.
Thirteen accessions of Italian Malvasia Nera di
Brindisi and thirteen accessions of Malvasia
Nera di Lecce culled from old vineyards in the
Salento area of Puglia were analyzed. All the
accessions showed the same SSR profi le and
were identifi ed as Malvasia Nera di Brindisi/
Lecce. However, the intra-varietal variability
was studied further by combining AFLP,
SAMPL, M-AFLP, and ISSR analyses. Very
interestingly, the authors found that the dis-
crimination among the genotypes of Malvasia
Nera di Brindisi/Lecce from the two different
geographic origins of the Salento (Lecce and
Brindisi) was possible using the four marker
types. Genetic similarity as described by Dice
(1945) estimated within and between the two
origins confi rmed that these two groups were
not genetically identical. Whether these genetic
differences are suffi cient enough to consider
the two Malvasia Nera s in question as distinct
varieties is unclear yet; but it is not without
interest that two varieties with different geo-
graphic origin and that are not perfectly geneti-
cally identical look and behave differently, rela-
tive to wines that can be made with them.
My view (one that I have already illustrated
along its general lines in chapter 1) is that, at
the very least, these two Malvasia Neras are best
considered biotypes (if they really are just bio-
types) that produce very different wines. I can't
help but wonder if genetic differences shown
thus far, and others we may not yet be able to
investigate with the biotechnology currently
available, aren't enough to keep Malvasia Nera
di Brindisi and Malvasia Nera di Lecce as dis-