Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
commercial importance of the
Schiava
s may
not be anywhere near what it used to be in the
past century, so many clones are a clear-cut
indication that at least this
Schiava
was deemed
to be of signifi cance.
like all the
Schiavas,
and there are two offi cially
certifi ed clones (BS-S10 and BS-S12).
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Today, it's not easy to fi nd a monovarietal Schi-
ava Nera wine, though in Lombardy DOC
Colleoni (or Terre del Colleoni) must be made
with a minimum 85 percent Schiava Nera (a
sparkling version is also possible). It hardly
helps when a well-known, excellent producer
such as Gino Pedrotti (his Trentino Vino Santo
made with Nosiola is one of Italy's greatest
wines) labels a wine “Schiava Nera” when it is
in fact made with Schiava Grossa.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
As I explain above, DOC regulations make it
diffi cult to fi nd schiavas that are not a blend of
varieties. Still, some producers reportedly use
only or mainly (that is, 90 percent or more)
Schiava Grossa.
wines to try:
In Trentino, try Soini Quinto
(Schiava Grossa La Laita). In Alto Adige, try:
Produttori Nalles-Magré*** (Galea, a thing of
beauty; some vines are over one hundred years
old), Produttori Merano*** (Meranese St. Val-
entin; also made mainly from fi fty-plus-year-
old vines), Ramoser** (Santa Maddalena; a
very good example, with only 2 percent Lagrein,
so you get to taste the
Schiava
), Franz Gojer**
(Santa Maddalena), Cantina Girlan* (Schiava
fass n. 9), and Josephus Mayr* (Santa Mad-
dalena).
wines to try:
Cantina Bergamasca (Rosato is
the only monovarietal Schiava Nera I know that
is easy to fi nd, and a wine that has managed to
win awards in well-known international wine
competitions).
THE TREBBIANO GROUP
Naming members of the
Trebbiano
group often
involved adding an adjective that referred to
their place of origin, the place where they were
most abundant, or their color. Thus there are
countless different Trebbiano-Something varie-
ties, from
verde
to
giallo
and from
Romagnolo
to
Toscano.
According to Labra, Winfi eld, Ghiani,
Grassi, Sala, Scienza, and Failla (2001), these
varieties lack a common progenitor, deriving
either from domesticated local Italian varieties
or crossings between these and new grapevine
arrivals. Labra's study (still the most-cited
research paper detailing the
Trebbiano
group),
illustrated how the
Trebbiano
s share some mor-
phologic and behavioral features like white ber-
ries (there are no red-berried
Trebbiano
s), large
and generally long bunches, high vigor, late rip-
ening, and very good adaptability to diverse
ter-
roirs,
but are, for the most part, unrelated. In
fact, a dendrogram charting shared bands,
based on the SSR data, suggested that Trebbi-
ano Abruzzese and Trebbiano Spoletino are the
only two
Trebbiano
s with probable family ties; it
also showed that Trebbiano di Soave, Trebbiano
Schiava Nera
where it's found:
Lombardy.
national reg-
istry code number:
224.
color:
red.
Also called Sciava, Sciava Peloseta, and
Sciava Spinarola, today Schiava Nera grows
mainly in Lombardy, especially around the
shores of Lake Garda, so many in that region
refer to it as Schiava Lombarda. In the late
1800s it was cultivated everywhere in Trentino
especially, with roughly eighty thousand hecto-
liters per year produced, not a small amount.
The variety is characterized by large, pentago-
nal leaves (much larger than those of the other
three
Schiava
s) with three lobes and a lightly
downy undersurface (a feature the other three
Schiava
s lack), and large, long bunches (twenty-
fi ve to thirty centimeters; again, larger than the
other three
Schiava
s) that are conical-cylindri-
cal in shape and winged. The round berries are
also quite large. It is vigorous and late ripening
