Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Among the wine world's most undervalued
treasures, wines made with Aleatico can dem-
onstrate a thrilling combination of raciness and
richness. Aleatico is a delicious, lightly aro-
matic red that will have you thinking of a black
muscat wine. It is also one of Italy's most
ancient grapes, appreciated by the Romans,
though the exact origins of the cultivar are
debated. Some experts believe it was brought to
Puglia by the Greeks, and note that the name
Aleatico is very similar to Liatika, a Greek grape
(though the two could not be more different,
and most importantly, Liatika is not an aro-
matic variety). Others believe Aleatico's name
refers to July (
lugliaticum,
in Latin), the month
in which the ripening grapes change color.
Molon traces the Aleatico name to another
ancient name,
livatica.
In his
Liber Ruralium
Commodorum,
Pier de' Crescenzi writes of a
Tuscan grape called Livatica, but described it as
white, while Aleatico is red. In any case, a red
Aleatico was well known in Tuscany in the sev-
enteenth century: Bartolomeo del Bimbo,
painter of the Medici court, depicted a red
grape called
liatico della Villa de' Biadori,
and
Trinci describes a red wine made from Aleatico
in 1726.
Synonyms, erroneous and not, have long
plagued Aleatico. In the nineteenth century,
three different Aleatico varieties (Nero, Bianco,
and Rosso) were believed to exist. In their
major work of 1909, Viala and Vermorel name
at least ten varieties, and the list of names and
synonyms by which Aleatico is known through-
out Italy today is virtually endless: Aleatica,
Aleatica di Firenze, Aleatichina, Aleatico de
Corse, Aleatico dell'Elba, Aleatico de Portofer-
raio, Aleatico di Altamura, Aleatico di Beneven-
toare, et cetera. Some of its synonyms (Moscato
Nero, Moscatello Nero, Moscato Rosso) are fl at-
out wrong, and should be avoided at all costs.
DNA profi ling of the
Moscato
grapes has
demonstrated Aleatico's parent-offspring rela-
tionship with Moscato Bianco, and also identi-
fi ed Aleatico with Moscatello Nero (Crespan
and Milani 2001; Filipetti, Ramazzotti, Intri-
eri, Silvestroni, and Thomas 2002), but distin-
guished it from Moscato Nero (Scalabrelli,
D'Onofrio, Ferroni, and Vignai 2009). Accord-
ing to Filipetti, Silvestroni, Thomas, and Intri-
eri (2001), Aleatico also shares close genetic
ties to Lacrima di Morro d'Alba (that's easy
enough to imagine), as well as to Sangiovese
and Gaglioppo (that's a lot harder, given the
three grapes have very little in common).
Though it is reported in Robinson, Harding,
and Vouillamoz (2012) that the Hungarian
variety Halápi is also identical to Aleatico, I
have found no scientifi c study in which this
conclusion has been accepted for publication,
but it's hopefully just a matter of time. Last but
not least, in 2003, Crespan, Cancellier, Costa-
curta, Giust, Carraro, Di Stefano, and Santan-
gelo showed that Vernaccia Rossa, a variety
grown in the Marche and used to make the Ver-
naccia di Pergola wine, is actually a biotype of
Aleatico. In fact, in 1876, De Bosis writes that a
very good aleatico was already being produced
on the hillsides of Jesi in the Marche.
Aleatico is a vigorous variety that has good
drought tolerance, and prefers well-ventilated,
dry, and not too fertile soils. It suffers from
potassium defi ciency in the soil and for optimal
ripeness it needs plenty of deleafi ng in order to
guarantee maximum ventilation and exposure
of the berries. This is especially true for tightly
packed bunches, as the variety is prone to fun-
gal diseases. The most common training sys-
tems are the spur cordon and Guyot, while
alberello
(a grapevine training system also
known as gobelet or bushvine in English) is
typical of older vineyards. Aleatico is sensitive
to wet springs, when poor fruit set (due to berry
shatter or to
millerandage
) can be problematic.
Today, though there are six clones available
from mainland Italy (AL-PA 1, VCR 438,
ARSIAL-CRA 489, AL-VAL 1, CRA VIC BC
SF3, and AL-FI.PI-1) and eight from Corsica,
with two more from Elba awaiting certifi cation.
As the grapes are almost always subjected to
dehydration techniques, developing less com-
pact clones of moderate vigor with thick-
skinned berries is of paramount importance.
New, virus-free grapevine material is also nec-
