Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Oristano is traditionally dry, there are slightly
sweeter versions offering nuances of caramel
and chestnut honey as well. Somewhat unfash-
ionable today, these can all be unbelievably
good wines, right up there with the best in their
category worldwide.
not Storchi et al., as reported elsewhere)
reported that Vernaccia di San Gimignano is
identical to Bervedino, a variety typical of
Emilia-Romagna, but I wonder; in any case,
Bervedino continues to be listed separately
from Vernaccia di San Gimignano in the
National Registry. Commendably, in 2010, the
Consorzio della Denominazione di San Gimi-
gnano began a collaboration with the Siena pro-
vincial council and the University of Siena to
identify the DNA of the Vernaccia di San
Gimignano variety and to guarantee the trace-
ability of the wines made with this variety. In
2011, results showing the standard genetic pro-
fi le of the variety were presented, and in 2012
preliminary results regarding the application of
a molecular wine tracing method for vernaccia
di San Gimignano were also presented. Inter-
estingly, the genetic makeup of the majority of
the Vernaccia di San Gimignano vines studied
was similar, a consequence of the fact that most
of the modern vineyards of this variety in San
Gimignano were planted with grapevines
issued from the same massal selections.
Both the Vernaccia di San Gimignano grape
and wine have a noble history. First mentioned
as such in 1276 in tax documents
(ordinamenti
di gabella)
in San Gimignano's town archives,
the wine was also a favorite of Lorenzo de
Medici (who apparently routinely asked the San
Gimignano authorities to send wine to Flor-
ence), with the church, and generally, with
those who counted most. Ludovico il Moro had
two hundred fl asks delivered for his son's wed-
ding to Isabella, daughter of King Alfonso II of
Naples; he must have been quite a fan, because
he then also asked the town of San Gimignano
for fi ve hundred vines to plant in his home
region of Lombardy. Sante Lancerio, cellar mas-
ter of Pope Paul III, also had words of praise for
the wine. In his
Divine Comedy,
Dante banishes
Pope Martino IV to purgatory for his glutton-
ous habit of drowning eels in vernaccia:
however, an analysis of Dante's text reveals that
he only wrote of vernaccia, and not specifi cally
that of San Gimignano. Wines from the Cinque
Terre (Vernazza, Monterosso, Corniglia, Ma-
wines to try:
Contini*** (Antico Gregori,
which contains one-hundred-year-old wine, is a
benchmark: it's not just the best vernaccia di
Oristano of all, but one of Italy's greatest wines;
and the other two vernaccias Contini makes are
great too), Josto Puddu** (Riserva, available at
an unbeatably low price), and Fratelli Serra**.
Vernaccia di San Gimignano
where it's found:
Tu sc a ny.
national regis-
try code number:
261.
color:
white.
Vernaccia di San Gimignano is the name of
both grape and wine produced in the country-
side around San Gimignano in Tuscany, one of
Italy's top twenty or so most beautiful (and
beautifully kept) medieval towns. Renowned
since the Middle Ages, Vernaccia di San Gimi-
gnano was Italy's fi rst wine (white or red) to be
awarded the DOC appellation nearly fi fty years
ago, in 1966, before Barolo, Amarone, or
Brunello; it earned DOCG status in 1993.
Considering how old the variety is, it is
strange that it doesn't have more synonyms. In
the early nineteenth century, Gallesio reported
that the Vernaccia di San Gimignano was culti-
vated in Liguria, where Piccabon grapes were
grown (he mistakenly believed that Piccabon
was Vermentino); instead, we know today that
it is Vernaccia di San Gimignano and Piccabon
that are identical (Torello Marinoni, Raimondi,
Ruffa, Lacombe, and Schneider 2009). Vernac-
cia di San Gimignano was also believed to be
identical to Canaiolo Bianco, also planted in
Tuscany, but we now know this to be erroneous:
these two varieties are distinct (Storchi,
Armanni, Randellini, Giannetto, Meneghetti,
and Crespan 2011), and are registered sepa-
rately in Italy. In 2009, Torello Marinoni, Rai-
mondi, Ruffa, Lacombe, and Schneider (and
