Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Cvetic, a line of wines in the Masciarelli estate
portfolio), Nicodemi* (Notàri; I fi nd the top of
the line Neromoro too oaky), Praesidium*
(especially the Riserva), Barone Cornacchia*,
Filomusi Guelfi*, Camillo Montor (Fonte
Cupa)*, Orlandi Contucci Ponno/Colle
Funaro*. For Cerasuolo d'Abruzzo, try: Valen-
tini***, Tiberio***, Cataldi Madonna** (Piè
delle Vigne, a
rosato
), Emidio Pepe**, Praesid-
ium**, and Pasetti*. With few exceptions,
beware the many award-winning Montepul-
ciano wines (in Italian wine guides), the names
of which you don't see here; they are disap-
pointing at best.
Calabria. In this respect, Montonico Bianco is
also not to be confused with Montonico di
Rogliano, which Schneider, Raimondi and De
Santis (2008d) have identifi ed in Guardavalle.
Most important, however, is that Montonico
Bianco has a parent-offspring relationship with
Garganega, as shown by Crespan, Calò,
Giannetto, Sparacio, Storchi, and Costacurta
(2008). This means that Montonico Bianco is
either the sibling or the grandparent of the
other eight varieties with which Garganega has
parent-offspring relations (Albana, Cataratto
Bianco, Dorona, Malvasia Bianca di Candia,
Marzemina Bianca, Mostosa, Susumaniello,
and Trebbiano Toscano).
Montonico Bianco has always been associ-
ated mainly with Abruzzo, where it was well
described by Acerbi in 1825, though some docu-
ments attest to its being diffusely cultivated in
the early seventeenth century. Unfortunately,
Montonico Bianco almost wholly succumbed to
phylloxera, with very few old vines saved from
extinction. Marchi and Lanati (2008) analyzed
samples of grapes (grown in Calabria) from the
2007 vintage and found signifi cant terpene
concentrations of geraniol and linalool, but the
grapes needed to be at full, optimal ripeness for
interesting wines to be made. This is because
this highly productive variety is characterized
by extremely large bunches (on average 450
grams, but 650-gram bunches are frequent,
1-kilogram not uncommon), and getting all
those medium-sized berries to ripen properly
isn't easy. There exists one clone (I-UBA-RA
MT32 UBA) of reportedly good winemaking
potential. However, La Quercia, the best pro-
ducer of monovarietal Montonico (and they
deserve great credit for believing in the variety:
the estate has planted a whole vineyard to the
cultivar), has relied thus far on old vines
obtained via massal selections.
Montonico Bianco grows mainly around
Bisenti near Teramo (Montonico di Bisenti and
Poggio delle Rose of Abruzzo), in Foggia, in
Bari (Puglia), and in the southeastern part of
Calabria. In these areas it has always been
appreciated as a table grape too.
Montonico Bianco
where it's found:
Abruzzo, Marche, Puglia.
national registry code number:
151.
color:
white.
This historically important variety is sad-
dled with a confusing name, as there are many
different
Mantonico
s (with an
a
as the second
letter instead of an
o
) and other
Montonico
s as
well. Montonico Bianco has always been grown
in central Italy (Abruzzo, Marche, Emilia-
Romagna), where it is also known as Chi-
apparone, Chiapparù, Ciapparuto, Fermana
Bianca, Firman, Rappenollo, and Uva Regno. It
is apparently rarer in southern Italy, but grows
there too. In Puglia it is known as Uva della
Scala and Pagadebiti (an unfortunate and
incorrect synonym, since Pagadebit is a differ-
ent variety typical of Emilia-Romagna and
because all over Italy there are legions of gener-
ously yielding grapes that have been so named
throughout the centuries). Montonico Bianco
apparently also grows in Calabria where it's
usually referred to either as Greco Bianco del
Pollino or (outside the Pollino area) as Manto-
nico Bianco Italico. This has proven a mess,
because most people tend to use the words
montonico
and
mantonico
almost interchange-
ably. So you'll read often of Montonico grapes
and wines from Calabria, but what is practi-
cally always meant is Mantonico Bianco, a
similarly named but unrelated variety native to
