Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Magliocco
Magliocco is also known as Magliocco Tondo
because of its round berries. Most often,
Magliocco has medium to medium-small
bunches that are tightly packed and roughly
conical in shape, without the large wings exhib-
ited by Magliocco Canino.
According to Marchi and Lanati (2008),
Magliocco is characterized by high levels of
acylated anthocyanins and malvin (76 percent
of the total anthocyanin profi le). Terpenic con-
centrations (geraniol, nerol) increase greatly
with late harvests. When Magliocco yields too
generously it produces unripe, herbal wines of
little charm. Late harvesting in ideal weather
conditions is a technique by which to obtain
polished tannins and sweeter fruit fl avors. For-
tunately, Magliocco is a late ripener, so in sunny
autumns the grapes can be left long enough on
the vine, allowing them to ripen fully, which
smooths out the tannins that can remain hard
years after the vintage. In this light, warmer
soils that may help bring about faster ripening
of the berries also help. In contrast to Magli-
occo Canino, Magliocco has a noticeably
smaller bunch (at an average of 260 grams, it's
roughly half the size), is much more drought
resistant, and is both strongly vigorous and
fertile.
where it's found:
Calabria.
national regis-
try code number:
not registered.
color:
red.
This variety grows mainly in the Bivongi
area of Calabria and is also known as Magliocco
Dolce and Magliocco Tondo (to differentiate it
from Magliocco Canino, which has oval berries
instead of this cultivar's typically round ber-
ries). Magliocco has many synonyms, most of
them erroneous. A correct synonym appears to
be Arvino, a name likely derived from Lake
Arvo in la Sila. Erroneous synonyms include
Guarnaccia Nera and Greco Nero. It appears
that Magliocco may be synonymous with the
Greco Nero grown around Lamezia Terme,
while it is different from the Greco Nero di
Sibari and the Greco Nero di Verbicaro. Accord-
ing to Schneider, Raimondi, and De Santis
(2008), Magliocco is synonymous with Marsi-
gliana Nera, but I have found no other evidence
in support of this fi nding; Magliocco is likely to
be more common in Calabria than commonly
believed, and it may be that some Marsigliana
Nera grapevines were misidentifi ed by locals
and are in reality Magliocco. However, Marsi-
gliana Nera is offi cially listed in the National
Registry while Magliocco is not; further studies
are probably warranted in order to confi rm this
synonym. This is not a matter of being overly
cautious: in Pellerone, Edwards, and Thomas
(2001), Marsigliana Nera was found to be iden-
tical to Castiglione, but the authors conclude
that this fi nding was due to a misidentifi ed
Castiglione sample (an easy error to make,
since Castiglione and Marsigliana Nera have
similar ampelographic features). In any case,
that study showed that Marsigliana Nera is dis-
tinct from Magliocco Canino, but no Magliocco
accessions were analyzed. Unbelievably
enough, Magliocco is also an offi cial synonym
for Gaglioppo, which is crazy, since the two
varieties have little in common and are geneti-
cally distinct. I also have trouble understanding
Lacrima as a supposed synonym for Magliocco,
because the former should have tear-shaped
berries by defi nition (
lacrima
means tear) while
Which Wines to Choose and Why
In the provinces of Crotone, Catanzaro, and
Cosenza, Magliocco is used for DOC Donnici
or IGT Val di Neto blends or monovarietal
wines that are classically dry. The monovarietal
wines are hard to come by because of the old
habit of planting Magliocco Dolce promiscu-
ously with other cultivars in the same vineyard;
but some monovarietal vineyards are found in
the province of Cosenza. A very good Magliocco
wine will have surprisingly smooth tannins
and sweet black cherry, exotic fruit, with notes
of tobacco (aromas can be very fl oral, even pun-
gent, in young wines but soften over time) and
underbrush on the fi nish, with just a hint of
herbs. According to Pineau, Barbe, Van Leeuw-
en, and Dubourdieu (2007), Magliocco wines
are almost always characterized by exotic fruit
