Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
station in Locorotondo, produces excellent
microvinifi cations every year and a number of
producers do so as well. A good Moscatello
wine is recognizably lighter in body and less
intense in its aromas than a wine made from
Moscato Bianco or Moscato Giallo; it is also
less sweet and viscous than anything made
with Moscato di Alessandria. It is a fresh,
crisp, delicately muscaty wine that works won-
derfully as an aperitif or with shellfi sh dishes
or delicate ethnic cuisines. It is included in
many IGT blends such as Daunia, Murgia,
Salento, Tarantino, and Valle d'Itria; some of
these wines are reportedly 100 percent Mos-
catello Selvatico.
the nineteenth century. Over the years, I have
been told by many a local that Negronza was
actually a rarer, distinct variety, and I am
inclined to believe this, given the depth of col-
lective memories I have been privy to. Interest-
ingly, this Negronza variety was reportedly
identical to a Negrera di Gattinara, a now
extinct variety. Acerbi (1825) wrote of a
Negrara
that was grown mainly around Schio in Tren-
tino, describing it as resistant to hot weather
and used to make excellent, deeply colored
wines.
By the early twentieth century, it became
apparent to experts that there were many
Negrara
s that differed on the basis of their
leaves, bunches, and berries, and that a precise
classifi cation was needed. For example, one of
the
Negrara
s was being confused not just with
obscure, rare cultivars, but also with Raboso
Veronese (Molon 1906). Marzotto (1925) pro-
vided the lengthiest list of
Negrara
varieties,
which remained the defi nitive one until more
recent times: Negrara Cenerente or Farinente
(also called Gambujana); Negrara Comune,
typical of the countryside of Vicenza, Verona,
and Trentino; Negrara Femmina (of Calvene);
Negrara Friulana, synonymous with Negruzzo;
Negrara Dal Picciuolo Duro (of Arcugnano);
Negrara Dal Picciuolo Rosso; Negrara di
Monte, synonymous with Doveana; Negrara
Farinella (del Friuli), identical to Farinella;
Negrara di Gattinara, believed to be synony-
mous with Negretta di Gattinara; and Negrara
Modenese, believed to be identical to Negretta
Modenese.
However, unlike other better-known Italian
grape groups or families, such as the
Malvasia
s
and
Trebbiano
s, almost all the members of the
Negrara
group have fallen into oblivion, deserv-
edly or not; and almost all are limited to spo-
radic rows in the countryside of Italy's north,
used in very small percentages in various wine
blends. Though Negrara Veronese is currently
the more abundant of the two, it is Negrara
Trentina that is making a sort of comeback and
the only one currently used to make a monova-
rietal wine.
wines to try:
Guerrieri** (a ridiculously small
number of bottles—two hundred for the 2010
vintage—so your only hope for a bottle is to
visit Puglia), Speziale 1855* (Ualani Moscatello
Selvatico, from organically farmed grapes), and
CRIFO* (Augustale Oro).
THE NEGRARA GROUP
Negrara Trentina is currently the most impor-
tant of what is one of Italy's smaller groups of
grapes, the
Negrara
s. Like other Italian grape
groups, the
Negrara
grapevines have highly
diverse morphological and phenological char-
acteristics as well as geographic origins. They
were all lumped together because of a generic
dark or black (
negro
) hue to their bloom-covered
berries (hence another synonym, Farinella,
recalling the Italian word
farina,
or fl our), and
they were once most commonly found in Tren-
tino and Veneto. In fact, it is estimated that 20
percent of the varieties grown in the province of
Verona in the 1930s belonged to this large fam-
ily. Pollini in 1824 mentions a Negrara Bastarda
(probably the Negrara Veronese of today), a
generic Negrara or Negronz (most likely today's
Negrara Trentina), and a Negronza Rizza (prob-
ably the result of an infection with grapevine
fanleaf virus or one of the grapevine leaf-roll
associated viruses 1, 2, 3, or 7) that disappeared
from its home in the Val d'Illasi in Veneto in
