Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
trano were considered synonymous varieties.
Whether Bellone was one of those
Belli
or is a
direct descendent, it is certainly a good-looking,
downright Rubenesque variety with large,
round berries and portly bunches; not by
chance another of its synonym is Pacioccone,
meaning fatso. It is also known as Cacchione,
Pampanaro, and Arciprete, though the last of
these is not exact. There is, of course, more
than one Arciprete: according to Marco Carpi-
neti (owner of the eponymous winery and prob-
ably the most important living expert on the
variety), Bellone is identical to one Arciprete
biotype, Arciprete Bianco Liscio, and different
from another, the rarer Arciprete Bianco Peloso.
The latter has a fuzzy underside to its leaf
(
peloso
means hairy), while both Bellone and
Arciprete Liscio are smooth (that is,
liscio
).
Peloso's grape bunch is also more sparse than
Liscio's. These morphologic differences may be
virus-induced, but nobody knows for sure. In
any case, microvinifi cations (very micro) of the
Peloso variety I have tasted over the years yield
wine similar to Bellone's, perhaps less refi ned
and less acid, but similar nonetheless. The VCR
2 clone was selected from vines in Cori owned
by a local grower named Giupponi, who sup-
plies his grapes to the local cooperative; another
recently available clone is ARSIAL-CRA 618.
Though it's too early to tell, the ARSIAL clone
gives lighter-bodied, less glyceral wines that
seem to not represent Bellone at its best.
Both biotypes are characterized by very low
basal fertility, so Bellone cannot be grown with
the spur cordon system. Nazzareno Milita,
president of the extremely high-quality Cincin-
nato cooperative in Cori (they control thirteen
hectares under vine, three of them Bellone and
fi ve Nero Buono, another local, up-and-coming
native variety) explains that “budding is preco-
cious but there is no frost risk in these parts of
Lazio, though it would be a problem in cooler
parts of the region or the country. Like all vigor-
ous grape varieties, Bellone rises to the sky
quickly. Then the growth cycle slows and the
berries ripen in the fi rst ten days of September.
It's not sensitive to oidium, but botrytis and
peronospora are problems; especially botrytis
bunch rot, because Liscio's bunch is especially
compact, and has trouble drying in wet
conditions.”
The best soils for Bellone are volcanic, but
limestone is good too (it's always good, a
Frenchman would say); Carpineti believes that
Bellone prefers volcanic and even
pozzolana
(sandy-clay) soils where humidity is managed
quickly. “It doesn't like wet soils and that's why
historically Bellone was planted on hills, aim-
ing at better drainage.” Most of the vines are
now grafted to SO4 rootstocks, as a 420A is not
ideal, due to Cori's volcanic soils. Bellone's nat-
ural vigor has to be kept under control or the
vine tends to produce a great deal of foliage and
very little fruit. Milita noted that using an SO4
rootstock decreases total sugar concentration
by an average of 0.5 grams per liter, “which may
be an advantage in today's increasingly hot
weather. The greater sugar buildup with the
Kober rootstock is probably due to a more devel-
oped leaf canopy allowing more photosynthe-
sis, thus, more sugar in the grapes and ulti-
mately more alcohol in the wines.”
Bellone is an outstanding grape variety, one
of the best in Italy today. Like few other grapes,
it is capable of producing both dry and sweet
wines (it likes noble rot) of real depth and com-
plexity. The history of Bellone provides ample
insight about why the wines of the Castelli Rom-
ani have fallen (deservedly) on hard times. Bel-
lone (like Malvasia Puntinata) was basically for-
gotten in the twentieth century by the region's
farmers, who were interested only in quantity
and replanted in favor of lesser grapes such as
Trebbiano Toscano and Malvasia Bianca di Can-
dia. The resulting wines could only be neutral
and thin. This state of affairs led to another
casualty: Frascati Cannellino, the delicately off-
dry dessert wine typical of the Castelli Romani
that used to be made with Bellone. Today, there
are no worthwhile examples of Cannellino,
now one of Italy's most disappointing wines;
this mainly because the wine isn't made with
Bellone anymore. Castel De Paolis is the only
estate that still makes a good Cannellino,
