Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
feel), Gino Pedrotti**, Riccardo Battistotti*,
Bolognani*, Giovanni Poli* (Goccia d'Oro),
Enrico Spagnolli*, and Zeni* (Maso Nero; a lit-
tle too herbal and sauvignony to me). For
vino
santo,
try: Gino Pedrotti***, Pisoni***, Franc-
esco Poli***, and Giovanni Poli*** (all of these
are outstanding).
eighteenth century relate it to the famous
wine Moscadeddu de Nuragus. Later, at the
end of the nineteenth century, it was the most
cultivated grape variety grown near Cagliari
and in the Campidano. As recently as 1990 it
was still the most abundant variety grown on
Sardinia.
Genetic characterization at twelve SSR loci
has determined that Nuragus is distinct from
all other Sardinian varieties, though it is closely
related to Semidano, another native Sardinian
white grape, with which it shares ten alleles in
the twelve loci studied (these results were pub-
lished by Nieddu in 2011 in a topic on Sardin-
ian varieties). According to De Mattia, Imazio,
Grassi, Lovicu, Tardaguila, Failla, et al. (2007),
there are two other extremely rare, distinct
varieties sharing the Nuragus name: Nuragus
Moscadeddu, also known as Nuragus Mos-
catello or Nuragus Rosso Rompizolla, and
Nuragus Arrubiu, currently not being culti-
vated. As I fi rst wrote in 2003 in the
Gambero
Rosso
guide to Italy's native grapes the name
Nuragus likely derives from the Phoenician
prefi x
nur,
meaning “fi re” (D'Agata, Sabellico,
Aiello, Arru, Buffa, Di Cintio, et al. 2003); oth-
ers believe it stems from
nuraghi,
Neolithic
stone dwellings of the Phoenicians in the Alta
Marmilla area near Nuoro. In any case, given
the surge of interest in Nuragus and its wines,
and with the increasing number of monovari-
etal bottlings available, you can say this variety
is on fi re.
Though cultivation of Nuragus was declin-
ing in the last decades of the twentieth century,
there are now close to three thousand hectares
under vine on Sardinia and plantings are on
the upswing. Grown everywhere on the island
but found mainly in the countryside around
Cagliari, Nuoro, and Oristano, it does very well
on the marly-clay-calcareous soils northeast of
Cagliari: Serdiana, Dolianova, Soleminis,
Maracalagonis, Ussana, Donori, and Senorbì
are all potential
premier crus
for this variety.
Parteolla and Sibiola (in the townships of
Dolianova and Serdiana) and Selegas (in the
township of Trexenta) are potentially
grand
Nuragus
where it's found:
Sardinia.
national regis-
try code number:
175.
color:
white.
Every time I hear someone make the blan-
ket statement that Italy's native varieties aren't
all that interesting or capable of high-quality
wines, I think of Nuragus. For the longest time,
wines made from Nuragus were unimpressive,
usually fl abby and insipid. Trouble was that
yields were always too high, and many local
synonyms for Nuragus tell the story: Abbon-
dosa (abundant, as in a copious producer),
Preni Tineddus (grab the buckets), or Axina
Scacciadeppidus (grape that clears debts). Per-
haps even more worrisome was it being listed
as Trebbiana in a
Bollettino ampelografi co.
In
reality, Bruni (1964) describes two Nuragus
biotypes, one of them less productive. High
yields plagued many Italian native grapes for
centuries, and so these were consequently
unable to prove their worth, a fate that befell
Nuragus too. However, with Nuragus matters
didn't improve in modern times when yields
were reduced. This is because so little was
known about the variety that in trying to make
the best wines possible, serious producers
applied viticultural techniques such as heavy
pruning and aggressive deleafi ng. Unfortu-
nately, Nuragus drops its acidity quickly and
needs canopy production to avoid yielding
fl abby, low-acid wines. So only after years of
observation and trials did the true quality of the
variety become evident: today we know it is a
very interesting white grape indeed.
Interestingly, Nuragus had always been
highly thought of, if for no other reason than
because of its extreme resistance to drought
(important on Sardinia). Documents from the
