Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
varieties) worth a look are Assisi Bianco, Colli
Perugini, and Colli del Trasimeno—the best of
these, Colli Martani is in my experience most
often pure Grechetto di Todi, that is, Pigno-
letto. Of course there are IGT wines simply
labeled grechetto that might be quite good too.
The most famous supposedly Grechetto wine is
Orvieto, but it too is almost always a blend not
just of the two varieties previously thought to
be
Grechetto
s, but of Procanico (a Trebbiano
Toscano biotype), Verdello, Drupeggio, and
others. In fact, the law states that Orvieto must
contain 60 percent Procanico
and/or
Grechetto:
Grechetto component can be as little as 1 per-
cent. Therefore, it is impossible to speak of
Orvieto as a monovarietal Grechetto wine; fur-
thermore the majority of Orvietos are thin, tart,
and lack any real interest. When there are
roughly eighteen million bottles of any wine
produced a year—and in the case of Orvieto,
produced by 120,000 different bottlers, 95,000
of which are located outside the DOC zone—
then a large variation in quality, with many
nonsensical products, is to be expected.
Grechetto di Orvieto makes uncomplicated,
light-bodied, lemony wines that are easygoing,
with hints of white fl owers, chamomile, lime,
and yellow apples, with generally high acidity.
When the product of high yields, wines are tart
and neutral and hold little interest. Grechetto di
Orvieto's thick skins and loosely packed, sparse
bunches mean it can be used to make the late-
harvest, noble-rot-affected wines that Orvieto
was once particularly famous for. Finding a
monovarietal Grechetto di Orvieto wine is not
easy but may well be the way of the future now
that more is known about the grape's lineage
and genetics. If nothing else, now that the iden-
tity between Grechetto di Todi and Pignoletto
has been established, there is hope that people
who want to make a Grechetto in Umbria will
be more likely to plant only the real Grechetto,
rather than a Grechetto-Pignoletto mix or even
just Pignoletto, as was done in the past.
However, not everyone is a big fan of Gre-
chetto. Giovanni Dubini, owner of Palazzone, is
one of the two or three best Orvieto producers;
with thirty-seven vintages in Umbria under his
belt, he should know what he's talking about
when it comes to Grechetto, and he has told me
repeatedly over the years that “Grechetto marks
the blend considerably; even just 2 to 3 percent,
depending on the vintage characteristics, will
have a deep impact. In a vintage like 2010, the
Grechetto really shows up in the wine and I
don't like the rusticity it supplies.” Neither is
Dubini especially keen on sweet wines made
with Grechetto: “True, some very good late har-
vests are possible, but at least in my opinion, the
wine is never especially deep or rich: late har-
vests are diffi cult with Grechetto, and a big risk,
because it needs to ripen long, late into the sea-
son, and it always starts raining in this part of
Umbria in the fall. Grechetto picked in late
October would still need about a month to pro-
duce a truly interesting sweet wine; on the
other hand, Sauvignon Blanc grapes would be
just perfect by then and ready to go. So I don't
know of anyone who's willing to risk the crop
just to make a monovarietal grechetto late-har-
vest wine, when using Sauvignon Blanc and
other varieties will allow them to make a wine
that's just as good if not better.”
wines to try:
For Grechetto di Todi/Orvieto
mixtures, try: Barberani***, Antonelli/San
Marco** (Colli Martani), Podere Marella**
(Godot; from organic grapes, not always a good
thing in Italy, as the wines often smell horrible
and taste worse, but not in this case), Palaz-
zone**, Roccafi ore**, San Rocco**, Franco
Todini**, Tudernum**, and Argillae*. For Gre-
chetto (Lazio), try: Sergio Mottura*** (Poggio
della Costa and Latour a Civitella, which is
oak-aged).
Grignolino
where it's found:
Piedmont.
national reg-
istry code number:
100.
color:
red.
One evening in Rome in 1980, on a date
with a wonderful young French lady who liked
wine, I tasted my fi rst ever Grignolino wine
and we both fell in love. Not with each other,
