Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Also called Merla in parts of the region,
Canaiolo Nero is a very ancient Tuscan variety,
mentioned in documents dating back to the
early fourteenth century, when it was referred
to as Uva Canaijuola (de' Crescenzi 1303); later
it was called Canaiolo Colore by Villifranchi
(1773) and Acerbi (1825). Gallesio in his
Pomona
Italiana
describes it as a great match for San-
giovese, softening wines made with the latter
variety while Sangiovese allowed Canaiolo Nero
wines to age better (and I couldn't agree more).
Prior to the sixteenth century, most of the wine
made in Chianti was largely Canaiolo Nero and
not Sangiovese. Nevertheless, in 1873 Bettino
Ricasoli, inventor of the original Chianti blend,
decided that the best Chianti possible was
seven-tenths Sangiovese, two-tenths Canaiolo
Nero, and one-tenth Malvasia Bianca Toscana
Lunga—no Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot in
sight, though Ricasoli knew those grapevines
too.
Things have since changed immensely in
Tuscan wine (not always for the better), and
Canaiolo Nero today has only a marginal role.
Many factors contributed to Canaiolo Nero
being forgotten, if not abandoned. After the
phylloxera onslaught, Canaiolo Nero, like Mal-
bec in Cahors, showed a very poor adaptation to
American rootstocks: it is diffi cult to graft.
“For that reason, in Tuscany it had long been
cultivated by letting it run free around trees,
right up until recent times, though this didn't
do much for the ripeness level of the grapes,”
says Maurizio Castelli, arguably the modern
winemaker who knows Tuscan grape varieties
best. According to Roberto Bandinelli of the
University of Florence, another huge problem
posed by Canaiolo Nero is the almost complete
lack of virus-free grapevine material, making
for rickety, slowly growing, irregularly yielding
grapevines, never a thrilling sight for wine pro-
ducers. The fact that it's a late ripener with
thin-skinned berries never helped endear it to
farmers either. Bandinelli continues: “It can be
very productive at times, though it's not espe-
cially vigorous—but unless many bunches per
vine are thinned, the fi nal wine will have an
unstable, light color.” Canaiolo Nero is also sus-
ceptible to problems with spiders, since its leaf
has a downy underside, a perfect habitat for
these critters. (Canaiolo Bianco, now known to
be a distinct variety also called Drupeggio,
shares this downy characteristic, making it
resemble Canaiolo Nero.) It buds later than
Sangiovese, but usually ripens earlier, in late
September or the fi rst ten days of October.
Thus far, Canaiolo Nero hasn't been much
helped by clonal research to improve on the
original. Lamberto Frescobaldi recalls that
“back in the 1980s, Professor Pisani and his
then-assistant Roberto Bandinelli came to the
Castello di Nipozzano and selected what even-
tually became two commercially available
clones, clone 6 and clone 8; the latter was the
less productive of the two.” Of the clones com-
mercially available today (Rauscedo 6, Nipoz-
zano 8, Mugello 30, CAN-N-6, CAN-N-8, Fedit
23 CH, Fedit 24 CH, Fedit 25 CH, VCR 10, VCR
109), the most interesting from an enological
perspective, according to a study by Giannetti,
Epifani, Perria, and Valentini (2012) presented
at the Fourth National Viticulture Congress
held in Asti July 10-12, 2012 (and not yet been
subjected to the peer-review process of a major
journal), are Fedit 24 CH and Fedit 25 CH,
which have better color, more intense aromas,
and fl avors of balsamic and spicy red fruits.
The same study showed that Canaiolo Nero,
though low in overall anthocyanins (which
explains the wine's usually light color) is none-
theless rich in malvin (a darker, more stable
anthocyanin), and in particular, has ten to fi f-
teen acylated anthocyanins, mainly of the
p-cumarate form, differentiating it neatly from
Sangiovese, which has virtually no acylated
anthocyanins.
Nevertheless, Bandinelli points out that
Canaiolo Nero's reputation as viticulturally dif-
fi cult and enologically uninspiring is partly
undeserved, the result of careless nursery
practices. More often than not, when estates
asked for Canaiolo Nero grapevines in the
1970s and 1980s, nurseries would send vines
of Bonamico, Canaiolo Nero Pratese (a bio-
