Major Native and Traditional Grape Varieties - Native Wine Grapes of Italy - page 268

Falanghina Flegrea, they are not likely to be all
the same variety; experts such as Froio have
been pointing out differences between them
since the 1870s. For example, Froio described a
Falanghina Bianca typical of the countryside of
Naples, and a Falanghina Bastarda in the
Campi Flegrei; Bordignon named the latter
Falanghina Mascolina or Falanghina Piccola.
Again, while it is agreed that the Falanghina
variety original of the hinterland of Benevento
and that of the Campi Flegrei are distinct varie-
ties, when I look at the Falanghina s grown
around Caserta and compare them to those
found in the Campi Flegrei, I see clear-cut dif-
ferences between them as well, though there is
as yet no genetic evidence to support the exis-
tence of a third clearly distinct Falanghina.
Presently, these Falanghina s showing slight
morphologic differences are thought to be the
result of the natural adaptation of Falanghina
Flegrea to very different and specifi c terroirs
over time, that is, different phenotypic expres-
sions rather than distinct genotypes. This
explains the existence of small-berried Falan-
ghina cultivars in many vineyards, such as the
Falanghina Pigna Piccola (a biotype of Falan-
ghina Flegrea), which may be the Falanghina
Bastarda or Falanghina Piccola described in the
past. Characterized by smaller berries and nat-
urally smaller yields, it has almost disappeared
because of its limited production capacity.
Given this multiplicity of Falanghina s—and
their popularity—we should perhaps not be
surprised that not all the grapes fi nding their
way into Falanghina wines belong there. In
spite of the millions of bottles of wine sporting
the Falanghina name and now being sold all
over the world, I have never found that Falan-
ghina grapevines were so abundant during my
journeys through the Campanian countryside.
Of course, I probably don't know what to look
for. Then again, this wouldn't be Italy if charm-
ing stuff like this weren't going on all the time.
Leonardo Mustilli, of the high-quality Mus-
tilli estate in the Sant'Agata dei Goti area of
Campania, was the fi rst to actively differentiate
between his Falanghina and that grown in the

area around Naples, choosing and propagating
old vines of a Falanghina he believed was typi-
cal of the Sant'Agata dei Goti production zone.
Beginning in the 1970s, he and a few other
local producers and growers actively sought out
vines in older and abandoned vineyards to
reproduce and propagate. In the end, they iden-
tifi ed eighteen different native or local varieties
that risked extinction, and used them to make
experimental wines. The resulting Falanghina
wines were most impressive, and the local vari-
eties Mustilli and his companions had isolated
were later identifi ed as Falanghina Beneven-
tana. It is to Mustilli's credit that he was the
fi rst producer to ever bottle a monovarietal
Falanghina wine—his fi rst vintage was the
1979. I distinctly remember the evening in
1981 (or was it 1982? Well, maybe not so dis-
tinctly) in Rome when I and the owner of what
was then the city's best wine shop tried a
Falanghina wine for the fi rst time. Neither one
of us was overwhelmed, but the wine was inter-
esting and well made, and we were thrilled that
an ancient variety had made a comeback. Since
then, Mustilli, who has since planted both the
Flegrea and Benevantana varieties, has identi-
fi ed and selected a third biotype or variety, with
which he makes his best wine, called Vigna
Segreta. Genetic studies are planned in order to
differentiate this either as a Falanghina biotype
or new Falanghina variety. The best compli-
ment I can make is that Mustilli's Falanghina
wines always speak of their terroir, for over the
years winemakers have changed at the estate,
and yet the wine has always remained more or
less the same.
The Beneventana variety is the most recently
identifi ed Falanghina and ought therefore to be
the least abundant of the two, though this is
unclear from agricultural census data. Morpho-
logically, Falanghina Beneventana has a conical
grape cluster, with oval, yellow-green berries,
in contrast to Falanghina Flegrea's cylindrical
bunch, with round, yellow-green marked by a
recognizable grey tinge, due to this variety's
greater presence of bloom. The Beneventana
variety is thought to have originated in Bonea,