Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
wines to try:
Carlo Benotto**, Tenuta dei
Fiori**, Collina d'Oro / Tenute Baldovino*
(Gamba d'Pernis), La Canova*, Fea*, Villa
Giada*, all excellent monovarietal wines.
Garganega is, like Sangiovese and Nebbiolo,
one of Italy's oldest and most important grapes
and has therefore played a key role in the evolu-
tion of Italy's ampelographic base. According
to Di Vecchi Staraz, Bandinelli, Boselli, This,
Boursiquot, Laucou, Lacombe, and Varès
(2007) and to Crespan, Calò, Giannetto, Spara-
cio, Storchi, and Costacurta (2008), it holds
fi rst-degree relationships with numerous other
cultivars: Trebbiano Toscano, Albana, Empi-
botte (now called Mostosa), Malvasia Bianca di
Candia, Marzemina Bianca, Catarratto
Comune, and Greco del Pollino (now known to
be identical to Montonico Bianco). All share at
least one allele at each of the thirty-six SSR loci
used in the study. Crespan's study also showed
that, at least in the four accessions of Garganega
and Grecanico Dorato they profi led, the two are
identical (confi rming the fi ndings in Vantini,
Tacconi, Gastaldelli, Govoni, Tosi, Malacrinò,
Bassi, and Cattivelli 2003, who analyzed only
two samples of each), though these two grapes
are still listed separately in the National Regis-
try. Since Garganega is known to exhibit great
morphologic variability, it is believed that Gre-
canico Dorato is a local biotype adapted over the
centuries to its specifi c Sicilian
terroirs.
Pastena
(1969) dates the presence of Grecanico Dorato
in Sicily back to the end of the seventeenth cen-
tury, when different phenotypes were
described. In light of Grecanico's name, which
hints at a possible Greek origin, Crespan, Calò,
Giannetto, Sparacio, Storchi, and Costacurta
(2008) compared the Grecanico Dorato SSR
profi le to those in preexisting microsatellite
databases of the Centro di Ricerca per la Viticol-
tura of Conegliano, the University of California
at Davis, and University of Crete in Heraklion.
Grecanico Dorato's profi le was found to be dis-
tinct from that of any sample in those collec-
tions, including all the Greek varieties. Studies
also tell us that Garganega is identical to Spain's
no longer commercially cultivated Malvasía di
Manresa (Di Vecchi Staraz, Bandinelli, Boselli,
This, Boursiquot, Laucou, Lacombe, and Varès
2007; Crespan, Calò, Giannetto, Sparacio,
Storchi, and Costacurta 2008), most likely
Garganega
where it's found:
Veneto.
national regis-
try code number:
92 (listed at number 94 as
Grecanico Dorato).
color:
white.
The grape variety with which Italy's world-
famous Soave wine is made, Garganega has
long had a good reputation, even though wines
made from it are not always something to write
home about due to excessively high yields. In
fact, locals have always appreciated Garganega's
dependable and generous productivity, espe-
cially in times past, when wine quantity was
more important than quality. Limiting yields
and advances in winemaking have revealed
Garganega's true potential.
Described at length by numerous experts
over the centuries, from Pollini (1824) to Molon
(1906), wines made in the area of Soave are
among the oldest documented in Italy. Appar-
ently, in 500
B
.
C
.
E
., Flavius Magnus Aurelius
Cassiodorus, a minister in the Lombard govern-
ment of King Teodorico, described the process
by which sweet wines were made in Soave (via
the air-drying of grapes), though there isn't any
way to be sure that Garganega was the grape
being used. Cassiodorus is also credited with
having described the wine as “so white and pure
it seems born from lilies.” The name Soave does
not derive from “suave” in the modern-day sense
of that word, but rather from Svevia and then
Suavia, the name of the Longobard Germanic
tribe that invaded and settled in this part of Italy
after the fall of the western Roman Empire. Gar-
ganega was mentioned as early as the fourteenth
century, though, by Pier de' Crescenzi, who
described it in the regions of Bologna and
Padova. In the nineteenth century, as Garganega
had also always been cultivated around Vicenza
and Verona, the grape was commonly called
Garganega di Gambellara (Gambellara, like
Soave, is a famous Veneto white wine).
