Grape Groups and Families - Native Wine Grapes of Italy - page 125

such as pyramidal, winged bunches and round
berries, with only minor differences between
varieties: Schiava Grigia's and Schiava Piccola's
bunches are more loosely packed than most,
and Schiava Grigia's bunches are longer than
Schiava Grossa's; the latter also has darker-
colored berries. Strangely enough, in medieval
Italy, most of the Schiava s cultivated were white-
berried, while there is no single white Schiava
in Italy today. Instead, the dark-berried Schiava s
became common only much later.
The fi rst to have tried classifying the many
Schiava varieties was Tamaro in 1902, who,
clever chap, greatly simplifi ed matters for him-
self by listing only two: a large-bunched culti-
var called Schiava Margellana (or Schiava Patri-
arca), and a medium-small one named Schiava
Gentile (or Schiava Piccola). Marzotto in 1925
was a little more detailed and also took geo-
graphic origin into account, but he considered
that only large-berried grapes could be Schia-
va s. At that time experts believed, as did others
before them, that the Rossara grape of Trentino
was also a Schiava, a hypothesis refuted by
experts such as Rigotti (1932) and which we
now know to be wrong. Research by Grando,
Frisinghelli, and Stefanini (2000) and Fossati,
Labra, Castiglione, Scienza, and Failla (2001)
attempted to shed light on possible genetic rela-
tionships linking these varieties and distin-
guished between the Lombardy (Schiava Nera
or Schiava Lombarda) and Trentino (Schiava
Grigia, Schiava Grossa, Schiava Piccola) groups
of Schiava s . Fossati's team also showed that
Rossara shares a similarity only to the Lombard
Schiava s, while Grando's team demonstrated
that all the main Schiava grapes known today
(Schiava Gentile, Schiava Grossa, Schiava Gri-
gia, and Schiava Nera) are unrelated, so this is
not a family of grapes, though they tend to look
similar. The fact that a grape variety grown in
Lombardy is distinct from others carrying a
similar name but grown in Trentino and Alto
Adige, is further evidence that the term schiava
referred to a common grapevine training sys-
tem, rather than to a specifi c set of related
grapes.

Tod ay, Schiava varieties are grown almost
exclusively in Trentino and Alto Adige (though
they were once also common in Lombardy) and
are often called (in Alto Adige, at least) by their
German name, Vernatsch. It is a group of
grapes with at least three well described subva-
rieties: Schiava Gentile, Schiava Grossa, and
Schiava Grigia (or Grauvernatsch). These three
are quite similar to one another, but being dis-
tinct cultivars, they are listed separately in the
National Registry. Schiava Nera, a grape found
only in Lombardy, is also registered, though
some feel it is identical to Schiava Grossa.
According to Harald Schraffl , the talented
young winemaker at the Cantina Produttori
Nalles Magré, the Schiava that is most popular
with producers nowadays is Schiava Grossa,
with few people planting the Gentile or Grigia
subvarieties anymore. This is quite a turna-
round, since only ten years ago almost every
producer I talked to used to say that Schiava
Grigia was the best Schiava of all. Shraffl notes
that “ grossa is a very relative term, since the new
clones of Schiava Grossa—LB40 and LB56,
which are planted by everyone nowadays—
actually have much smaller berries than Schi-
ava Grossa used to. These clones are defi nitely
superior to any clone of Grigia or Gentile avail-
able. But the main difference is the wine—the
wine we can make from these new clones is
richer and ages better.” Prost!
The main problem in choosing schiavas is
that DOC regulations don't always specify
which Schiava can be used to make which wine,
so most of the time, unless otherwise specifi ed,
it's safe to assume that Schiava wines are made
with a blend of the three main Schiava varieties
(Gentile, Grossa, and Grigia). Schiava s are used
to make DOC wines called St. Magdalener
(Santa Maddalena), Lago di Caldaro, Casteller,
Botticino, Cellatica, and more, but only the fi rst
two are well known and easy to fi nd. They are
also the best wines made with these varieties;
in fact, some Santa Maddalena and Lago di
Caldaro wines are among Italy's very best light-
to-midweight red wines. The Santa Maddalena
wines can include up to 15 percent Lagrein, a