Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
(D'Incanto Vino Passito, a sweet wine), and all
the producers of the Associazione, who work
remarkably well and in unity.
ity, world-famous Tenuta di Trinoro estate in
Tuscany produced a wine called Cincinnato
from Cesanese Comune grapes. Though he
eventually gave up on the variety because of its
well-known diffi culties in ripening fully, the
vintages that Franchetti did make are among
Italy's all-time great red wines, not a small com-
pliment in the land of many memorable Baro-
los, Barbarescos, Brunellos, and Amarones.
Franchetti has planted some on Etna as well
(where he makes his excellent Passopisciaro
wines), admittedly a curious place to put a vari-
ety renowned for not ripening easily.
Also known by the very rarely used names
Bonvino Nero, Cesanese Rosso, Cesanese Nero,
Nero Ferrigno, and Sanguinella,
Cesanese
is,
much like Sangiovese in Tuscany and Mon-
tepulciano in Abruzzo, the most famous and
important grape variety of its region, in this
case Lazio. The variety's name derives from
Cesano, a small town just south of Rome.
It is commonly accepted that there are two
distinct
Cesanese
varieties, Cesanese Comune,
found all over Lazio (though mainly in its
southern reaches), and Cesanese d'Affi le, which
is native to the area around the small town of
the same name just outside Rome. In reality,
there is a third, recently discovered
Cesanese
variety that few are aware of: Cesanese di Cas-
telfranco, localized in sporadic plots in the
northeastern section of Lazio, in the hinterland
around Rieti. This variety is at high risk of
genetic erosion and needs to be studied further;
presently its relevance is still only anecdotal. All
these
Cesanese
s are neither clones nor biotypes,
but rather distinct varieties sharing a similar
name, with different isoenzymatic and SSR pro-
fi les. The fi rst to correctly recognize the main
two varieties as separate was Mengarini (1888),
though Mancini (1893) was the one who
described the fundamental difference in berry
size, and Prosperi (1939) was the fi rst to furnish
truly detailed descriptions of each. The d'Affi le
variety is considered to be the higher-quality
one, but as it prefers very high altitudes it usu-
ally has trouble ripening, which is something of
a chore even for Cesanese Comune. However,
Cesanese
where it's found:
Lazio.
national registry
code number:
60 (Cesanese Comune) and 61
(Cesanese d'Affi le).
color:
red.
Cesanese,
of which there are two main varie-
ties, Cesanese Comune and Cesanese d'Affi le,
recently shot to prominence when it was learned
that porn star Savanna Samson's fi rst wine, the
2004 Sogno Uno, was a blend of 70 percent
Cesanese,
20 percent Sangiovese, and 10 percent
Montepulciano. The wine actually earned favor-
able scores from some American wine critics (it
never hurts with some wine critics to have the
talented Roberto Cipresso as your winemaker),
a testament to the many qualities of cesanese.
In fact, it's a shame that the cultivar used to
make it needed publicity of this sort just to earn
its due. For
Cesanese
s are great, if little-known,
Italian native varieties.
In fact, porn stars and famous winemakers
aren't the only believers:
Cesanese
wines have
been highly sought for centuries. The Roman
Emperor Nerva was apparently so smitten by
the wines made around Piglio that he had a pal-
ace built there (now there was a man who had
his priorities admirably straight).
Cesanese
experts like Prosperi believed the
Cesanese
s
were the ancient
Alveole,
a high-quality family
of grapes described by Pliny, though I'm not
sure there is any way Prosperi could have been
certain of that. In fact, the fi rst documentation
we have of a Cesanese grape or wine is from
Acerbi (1825), even though Soderini had writ-
ten of a Cesenese (with an
e
) grown around
Florence in the 1600s. Despite the slight differ-
ence in spelling, it is likely that
Cesenese
was
the modern
Cesanese.
C
esanese
was a favorite of
princes and popes in papal Rome (Popes Inno-
cent III and Bonifacius VIII were known fans),
but these grapes have had their share of admir-
ers in modern times too. For example, the
esteemed Andrea Franchetti of the high-qual-
