Agriculture Reference
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vintage, with hearty pasta and meat dishes. I
fi nd them less fruity than the Veneto and Sar-
dinian versions, but a lot depends on what the
producer does in the cellar. In Liguria, some
wines labeled Granaccia or Guarnaccia are
made with a local Cannonau variety.
tra (a white grape) and Piedirosso (a red vari-
ety). Still, the century-old habit of referring to
Caprettone as a local Vesuvian “Coda di Volpe”
persists and many people making wine on and
around the volcano will tell you that the grape
they use is “Caprettone, or Coda di Volpe.”
For what it's worth, Caprettone looks very
different from Coda di Volpe Bianca to me.
The names themselves would seem to point
this out: Coda di Volpe Bianca is so called for
its opulent cluster, which resembles the bushy
tail of a fox, while Caprettone, a much scraw-
nier cultivar, is named after the small “beard”
of goats (or perhaps because the fi rst to farm
Caprettone where local goat herders). Capret-
tone's berries are also smaller than those of
Coda di Volpe Bianca, though I have been
shown supposed Caprettone bunches that
were so big and round they seemed to have
more in common with fat turkeys than true
Caprettone. These phenotypic differences were
once thought to be the result of local
terroir
diversity—the poorer volcanic soils where
Caprettone grows were believed to play a role
in causing scrawny bunches and small berries.
Interestingly, while Antonio Mastroberadino
has told me in the past that he is not convinced
there is much difference between Coda di
Volpe Bianca and Caprettone, the majority of
Campanian wine producers and winemakers I
have talked to are. In fact, it's more than likely
that the majority of growers on the volcano
own Caprettone, but many took to calling their
grapes Coda di Volpe Bianca, as the latter is a
better-known and hence better-selling grape.
Nevertheless, I think Caprettone is a very
interesting variety and its wines potentially
exciting. Chances are high that we shall hear a
lot more about it in the future. Currently,
Caprettone is typically grown on volcanic soils,
which might explain the wine's bubbly person-
ality. Vineyards are mainly located on the
slopes of fi fteen towns near—and even on—
the Vesuvius volcano (especially the southeast-
ern slope, where soils are more fertile than in
the almost barren northern sector). Look for
vineyards around Boscotrecase, Trecase, San
wines to try:
For Cannonau, try: Dettori***,
Alberto Loi***, Gostolai***, Ferruccio
Deiana***, Argiolas***, Cantina Santadi***,
and Pala***. For Barbarano / Tai Rosso Riserva,
try: Costalunga**, Torengo** (Le Pignole), Pio-
vene Porto Godi**, Dal Maso*, Lidio Pretti*,
and Pialli*. For Umbria, try: Duca della
Corgna** (Trasimeno Gamay Divina Villa Eti-
chetta Bianca), Madrevite** (Bisbetica Rosé, a
rosato
), and La Querciolana** (Gamay Rosso
dell'Umbria). All are 100 percent Gamay Peru-
gino wines.
Caprettone
where it's found:
Campania.
national reg-
istry code number:
not registered.
color:
white.
Wine lovers with unconfessed masochistic
tendencies will revel in the knowledge that
fewer Italian grape varieties will provide a
headache faster than Caprettone. Trouble is,
nobody seems to agree on this cultivar's iden-
tity, with everyone holding steadfastly to his or
her view. For many experts, Caprettone is
exactly the same as Coda di Volpe Bianca,
another native white grape of Campania, but
don't try telling that to anyone farming the vol-
canic soils of the Vesuvius (where, wouldn't you
know it, Coda di Volpe Bianca is also grown,
though it is not common), unless you're a
sucker for an eruption of a different kind. Folks
in Italy are viscerally attached to their local vari-
eties, and so nobody in this neck of the woods
wants to hear that their beloved Caprettone is
the same as someone else's variety. The latest
in genetic analysis by Costantini, Monaco,
Vouillamoz, Forlani, and Grando (2005) con-
fi rms that the two grape varieties are different,
and that Caprettone is closely related to Gines-
