Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
couple of restaurants, and six bed-and-break-
fasts and country inns have opened for busi-
ness, “and all because of this wine,” says Paolo
Bendinelli, past president of the local consor-
tium and a well-known producer of Moscato di
Scanzo wine. Considering the only other note-
worthy wines of the area are Valcalepio Bianco
and Rosso, sorry Cabernet Sauvignon- or Char-
donnay-based blends nobody clamors for, you
understand the signifi cance of having a truly
good native grape and wine to promote.
The wine's name is that of the grape, and
neither should ever be referred to as “Moscato
Rosso” or “Moscato Nero,” both names that
refer to other varieties. The name Moscato di
Scanzo derives from the town of Scanzorosci-
ate, itself a combination of Scanzo, a centurion
in Julius Caesar's army, and Rosciate, from
ros,
Greek for cluster of grapes. They have been
making wine in Scanzorosciate since at least
1340 (the date of the oldest document attesting
to the grape growing locally), but many histori-
ans and wine experts believe the grape and
wine were known already to the ancient
Romans. For all its current lack of notoriety,
Moscato di Scanzo wine (then simply called
moscato rosso) was long one of Italy's most
famous wines, sought after by tsars, princes,
and notables of sixteenth- and seventeenth-
century Europe. Giacomo Quarenghi, an archi-
tect native to Bergamo (who designed many of
St. Petersburg's most beautiful buildings,
including the Winter Palace), is credited with
starting the craze when he donated the wine to
Catherine the Great, who was known to have
been quite the fan (as a letter from December
15, 1784, documents). In 1820, author Giovanni
Maironi Da Ponte wrote that the wine was
famous all over Europe; prices of Moscato di
Scanzo were even quoted on the London
exchange in the eighteenth century (at one gold
guinea a barrel) and the English were especially
fond of it. It is believed they were among the
fi rst to suggest air-drying the grapes, and
the result must have been to their liking, since
the wine's price had increased to fi fty guineas a
barrel by 1850.
Moscato di Scanzo is the progeny of Moscato
Bianco and another still-unknown parent, mak-
ing it a direct relative of at least fi ve other
Moscato
s or
Moscato
-like varieties. Researchers
once suggested that it originated via a natural
crossing of Moscato Bianco and Aleatico, but
this seems less likely now (see Cipriani, Spa-
dotto, Jurman, Di Gaspero, Crespan,
Meneghetti, et al. 2010). However, both
Moscato Bianco and Aleatico were varieties that
Roman legionnaires were known to travel with
when conquering new lands, and to plant once
they settled down. In fact, according to the
Moscato di Scanzo Consortium, Celso Lotteri
wrote in 1852 that in the fi rst century
B
.
C
.
E
., the
Roman founders of the towns of Villa, Scanzo,
and Rosciate, realized that local grapes were
special and began production of a
Moscato
wine
that soon was fetching higher prices than many
of the wines then sold in Rome. However, we
cannot be sure that the grapevine they used
was in fact Moscato di Scanzo; perhaps the viti-
culture and enology department of the Univer-
sity of Milan and the Consorzio di Tutela, cur-
rently studying the genetic makeup of this
Moscato,
will shed light on the issue. Current
Consorzio president Angelica Cuni says, “We
wish to safeguard and shed light on Moscato di
Scanzo's unique past, but to also improve the
wine for future generations of wine lovers.
In this respect, having identifi ed as many
as twenty-three possible clones is very im-
portant.”
Moscato di Scanzo is an aromatic red grape
that resembles but is different from Moscato
Nero or Aleatico, red-berried varieties it is
often confused with. Its pyramidal, elongated,
and sparse bunch is medium-sized, just like its
blue-black berries that are covered in copious
bloom, giving them a velvety look. It has good
disease resistance, but is susceptible to grey
rot. It ripens in late September or early Octo-
ber, later than both Moscato Nero and most
Aleatico except Elba's. It is also an excellent
table grape, but the wine made is too scarce
and expensive for the grapes to be used that
way anymore.
