Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Freisa
their wines (Cravero and Di Stefano 1992). The
two can be easily differentiated because Nebbi-
olo's cluster is usually bigger and more com-
pact, with a much shorter stalk leading to the
grape bunch, and a leaf that is slightly hairy on
both sides, while in Freisa only the underside is
downy.
Freisa was once much more popular than it
is today. By 1861 it was apparently included in
almost all Piedmontese red wine blends, and
in 1875 De Maria and Leardi documented
that Freisa often represented one third to one
half of all the acreage devoted to vines in
properties in the Asti and Alessandria prov-
inces. Farmers liked it because of its rustic,
easy to grow, very productive nature and its
disease resistance. Unfortunately, due to these
positive attributes, Freisa was often planted
in the poorest sites (where less hardy varieties
wouldn't fare well) and made to produce
huge amounts of grapes that were often
underripe; the ensuing wines were easy targets
for criticism. This explains why throughout
history there were both fervent supporters
and disdainful detractors of Freisa and its
wines. Still, Freisa di Chieri, a wine made
from the best-known Freisa biotype, must have
had its supporters: Goffredo Casalis, a nine-
teenth-century writer from Chieri, mentions
a “sacred tincture” as a remedy against the
plague, the key ingredient of which was “vino
di Chieri” made with the locally grown Freisa.
In A Farewell to Arms, Ernest Hemingway
mentions being curious about Freisa di Chieri.
Certainly, the queens of the royal house of
Savoy enjoyed the vineyards of Chieri. Ludovica
of Savoy, Elisabetta Teresa of Lorraine, Polis-
sena d'Assia, and other queens all preferred
to live at the Villa Reale, a magnifi cent country
retreat on the outskirts of Turin near Chieri
where a vineyard, called the vigna reale, was
located. Though it is not clear from old docu-
ments what varieties were grown there, Freisa
seems a logical choice, since it has always
been associated with the wines of Turin. In an
interesting and intelligent move, the Italian
Ministry of Culture and the Piedmont and
where it's found: Piedmont (Veneto). nation-
al registry code number: 88. color: red.
This variety's name derives from the Latin
fresia meaning strawberry: a whiff of Freisa
wine will immediately explain why. Freisa's
existence was fi rst documented as Fresearum
in 1517 when, customs tariffs exercised by the
town of Pancalieri reveal that this wine was
twice as expensive as any other made in that
area at the time. Vineyards of Freisa have been
documented around Neive (today it is one of the
most important centers for Barbaresco produc-
tion) since 1692, though the name Freisa fi rst
appears only in 1799 in the writings of Nuvo-
lone, when he cites it as a “fi rst quality grape.”
In the eighteenth century there was a distinc-
tion made between a Freisa Piccola and Freisa
Grossa di Nizza: but this was a mistake, as the
latter variety is in fact Neretta Cuneese, also
called Freisone. In modern times, some
(Schneider, Boccacci, Torello Marinoni, Botta,
Akkak, and Vouillamoz 2004) have suggested
that Freisa may be closely related to Viognier,
while others (Vouillamoz, Monaco, Costantini,
Stefanini, Scienza, and Grando 2007) have
shown it might also share close genetic ties to
the Valais variety called Rèze. However, by far
the most important and interesting revelation
has been that Freisa is a very close relative of
Nebbiolo, universally considered one of the
world's greatest cultivars. Genetic studies
(Schneider, Boccacci, Torello Marinoni, Botta,
Akkak, and Vouillamoz 2004) have shown that
Freisa and Nebbiolo share alleles on a whop-
ping fi fty-four microsatellite loci, and the two
have a parent-offspring relationship. Either
Nebbiolo derives from Freisa, or more likely,
Freisa is the child of a naturally occurring cross
between Nebbiolo and another as yet unknown
parent. This explains the many ampelographic
and viticultural similarities between the two
cultivars, right down to their anthocyanin pro-
fi les. For instance, both varieties are character-
ized by a profi le strong in cyanin and peonin,
which explains the light or unstable color of
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