Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Grande) and to Graciano. The reason for this is
the oft-cited study by Nieddu, Nieddu, Cocco,
Erre, and Chessa (2007) that established via
microsatellite analysis an identity between
these varieties, two Italian and one Spanish. If
this were true, then Cagnulari would not be a
native Italian grape, but rather a traditional
one, probably brought over from Spain during
roughly four centuries of Spanish domination
(1323-1720) of Sardinia. Though I have no
objections to this proposed scenario, which
actually makes a great deal of sense, I do have
issues with the identifi cation process itself.
First, to the best of my knowledge, Nieddu's
study is to date the only one attesting to the
exclusive relationship of Graciano, Bovale
Sardo, and Cagnulari. However, these results
were not published in a peer-reviewed journal,
but as the proceedings of a conference
(Acta
Horticulturae).
Also, an earlier study estab-
lished that the
Bovale
s of Sardinia were distinct
varieties (Reale, Pilla, and Angiolillo 2006).
What's more, in this same study of the two
pairs of Bovale Grande and Bovale Sardo acces-
sions, the members of each pair had different
genetic profi les, meaning that the
Bovale
s
under study were in fact, at least in part, differ-
ent varieties. So the question immediately
springs to mind: if this research group can col-
lect grapevine accessions that are not what they
are supposed to be, then is it not also possible
that the Nieddu, Nieddu, Cocco, Erre, and
Chessa study (2007) compared apples and
oranges?
As noted before, mistakes such as these are
always possible in ampelology: researchers
draw their conclusions based on the grapevines
sampled for the study, but if accessions are
wrongly identifi ed from the start then results
are inevitably going to be inexact, and grapes
will be believed identical when in fact they are
not.
So it's not surprising then that genetic pro-
fi ling done very recently on Cagnulari acces-
sions in an Oristano fi eld collection (Nieddu
2011) showed that though Cagnulari and Bovale
Sardo share twenty-three of twenty-four alleles,
they are distinguishable by one allele on locus
VVMD31. Hence, Cagnulari and Bovale Sardo
would appear to be very similar indeed, but not
identical. The same study showed that Bovale
Sardo and Graciano share nineteen of twenty-
four alleles, so these two cultivars aren't identi-
cal either. It follows that Graciano, Cagnulari,
and Bovale Sardo cannot all be the same grape.
Another recent study also failed to show syno-
nymity between the
Bovale
s and Cagnulari
(Lovicu, Farci, Sedda, Labra, De Mattia, Grassi,
et al. 2010). However, given that Cagnulari
shares numerous morphologic features with
Bovale Sardo, and that the two share alleles in
common, it appears Cagnulari is at least closely
related to Bovale Sardo. It is possible that Cag-
nulari is a biotype of Bovale Sardo that has
slowly adapted to its island habitat over the cen-
turies. Cipriani, Spadotto, Jurman, Di Gaspero,
Crespan, Meneghetti, et al. (2010) conclude in
their study that “genetically identical” mem-
bers of a cultivar can express different morpho-
logic and behavioral traits that are important to
wine production and are, according to the
authors “often worthy of being individually
considered.”
Cagnulari has medium-large, conical-cylin-
drical bunches, as Bovale Sardo does; its ber-
ries are usually a little more oval than Bovale
Sardo's. Also, Cagnulari's leaves tend to be
rounder and most often only have three lobes,
while Bovale Sardo's usually have fi ve. Both
varieties ripen late, in October, and have good
resistance to most common vineyard pests
except botrytis (and perhaps slightly to oid-
ium). There are no offi cial clones of Cagnulari
available. Though once common in Sardinia,
Cagnulari plantings decreased greatly in the
twentieth century (cultivation declined from
1,800 hectares in 1963 to 266 hectares in
2009) and the wine was no longer being made
in any signifi cant commercial volumes. Salva-
tore Cherchi, owner of the Giovanni Maria
Cherchi estate, which has singlehandedly done
the most to save the variety and bring it back to
everyone's attention, believes that Cagnulari's
extreme rot sensitivity is the main reason why
