Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
lotto***, Ascheri** (Do ut Des), and Bel
Colle** (Le Masche).
its former glory, mainly because farmers in the
post
-
phylloxera period opted for more resistant
and productive varieties.
Synonyms include Niuri, Pignatello, Pirri-
cuni, and Tuccarino (rarely used nowadays).
There are at least two biotypes, but they don't
seem that different, both ampelographically
and enologically. Though malvin is the most
common pigment, up to 30 percent of the
anthocyanin profi le is constituted by peonin
and delphin: this, and acylated anthocyanin
concentrations (less than 10 percent), explains
the light and unstable color of the wines. Over
the centuries, Perricone was always appreciated
for its tannic structure and was much in vogue
as a blending agent or for the production of con-
centrated grape must.
Ampelographically, Perricone has medium-
sized bunches with medium-large round dark-
blue berries; the variety especially character-
ized by its extremely long (even thirty-three
centimeters!), cylindrical-conical or conical-
pyramidal bunch. It is irregularly yielding,
with productivity varying greatly from year to
year, and green harvests are necessary to
achieve vegetative equilibrium between foliage
and fruit production. It usually ripens in mid-
to late September, later than many other Sicil-
ian varieties, on average about two weeks later
than the
Cataratto
s. Timing the harvest cor-
rectly is all-important with Perricone, since
acidity drops quickly as sugars rise, and the
risk, especially with low-lying vineyards, is that
the wines will be high in alcohol but fl abby. At
higher altitudes, grapes can be late harvested,
but this exposes the mid- to late-ripening Per-
ricone to the vagaries of inclement fall weather.
Perricone
where it's found:
Sicily.
national registry
code number:
185.
color:
red.
Every time I see a Perricone grape bunch, I
think my apartment needs sweeping. This
seemingly odd association is actually brought
on by Perricone's extremely long grape cluster,
indeed one of the longest among all Italian
grape varieties: you really could sweep fl oors
with it! Actually, Perricone has many endear-
ing features, not least its delicious, midweight,
and highly perfumed wines. Perricone used to
be more common than it is today, especially in
the provinces of Palermo and Trapani on the
western side of Sicily, where it was mainly
blended with white grapes to make
ambrato
wine, a sort of rustic
rosato.
However, Perricone
was also used to make full-bodied wines that
could keep: in the second half of the nineteenth
century, it was used to make the important and
much sought after Zucco Rosso wine by the
Duke d'Aumale (in reality Henry d'Orleans, the
son of the then king of France), who owned six
thousand hectares near Palermo and made
both white and red wines. According to Will
Stigand, then the British consul, in 1889 the
Palermo countryside was mainly planted to
Perricone (which he called Pignatello), and a
producer of the time, Salvatore Salvia, had great
success in exporting his Perricone wine to
northern Italy, France, and Germany. Most
important, Perricone has always been used
(and still is today) to make ruby Marsala.
Alas, Perricone is yet another variety almost
crippled by phylloxera. Abundant all over Sicily
in the nineteenth century, the cultivar is now
planted mostly around the cities of Trapani and
Marsala, in just 328 hectares (based on 2010
data). It is only the twentieth most commonly
planted variety on the island, and it is hard to
fi nd monovarietal wines. With its original acre-
age devastated by the arrival of the infernal
louse, Perricone has had trouble returning to
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Monovarietal examples are rare, but the DOC
wines Contea di Sclafani, Delia Nivolelli, Eloro,
and Monreale can be 100 percent Perricone.
One reason why monovarietal Perricone is not
common is that the variety's role has always
been, much like Canaiolo Nero with Sangio-
vese or the
Malvasia Nera
s with Negro Amaro,
to soften Nero d'Avola wine; but differently
