Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Piedirosso is one of the most ancient of Ita-
ly's grapes, and some historians trace its roots
far back, to an ancestor called Colombina, a
grape Pliny the Elder wrote about at length in
his
Naturalis historia.
Piedirosso, a name coined
by Carlucci (1909), refers to the typical red
stalks of the variety's grape bunches, akin to
the red color of pigeon claws (
piedirosso
means
red foot). Piedirosso was also called Palombina
Nera, Per e Palummo, Palummina, Piede Pal-
ombo, and Piede di Colombo, all of which refer
to the color red or pigeon feet.
Piedirosso exhibits a great deal of intravari-
etal variability, and this explains the many phe-
notypic expressions observed in vineyards and
the wildly different wines made from Piediros-
so's many biotypes. It also accounts for past
errors in ampelographic identification: for
example, Gasparrini (1844) mistakenly
believed Piedirosso to be identical to Pied-
mont's Dolcetto. In all honesty, the extent of
biodiversity among
Piedirosso
populations is
startling: on the island of Ischia, in the vine-
yards I have been visiting annually for the past
decade or so, one common biotype is called
Streppa Verde, but it lacks the red stalk even
when grapes have attained full ripeness. To me,
this simple fact provides more than enough
grounds to exclude it from the
Piedirosso
group
(after all, the variety's name is related to its red-
colored stalks), but most other experts do not
see it this way. This being Italy, you won't be
surprised that there is also a Streppa Rossa, yet
another synonym of Piedirosso; but you'll no
doubt be relieved upon hearing that this bio-
type at least isn't red-stalk challenged.
Of the many other
Piedirosso
s you may
encounter around Campania (in my experi-
ence, seemingly everywhere), we now know
that Piedirosso Beneventano and Piedirosso
Napoletano are identical and essentially topo-
nyms (they're the same variety, each named
after its province of cultivation, and so their cor-
rect name is Piedirosso). In contrast, Piedi-
rosso Avellinese grown, logically enough, in
the province of Avellino differs both in leaf and
cluster shape from the standard Piedirosso
variety and is a distinct variety, closely related
to the rare, currently noncultivated Uva Strone
(Costantini, Monaco, Vouillamoz, Forlani, and
Grando 2005). The same studies suggest that
Piedirosso has close genetic ties to Caprettone,
which is not surprising, given that both have
lived for centuries in close contact on the slopes
of Vesuvius.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
After Aglianico, Piedirosso is the second most-
planted red grape of Campania (the most com-
mon in the province of Naples) and so is part of
an infi nite number of IGT, DOC, and DOCG
wines. Most of the time it's used in blends, usu-
ally with Aglianico, which it helps soften (much
like Canaiolo Nero with Sangiovese), but many
monovarietal wines exist too. An only partial
list of DOC wines includes Ischia (both in the
Ischia Rosso blend and the pure Ischia Per e
Palummo), Campi Flegrei, Lacryma Christi,
Penisola Sorrentina Rosso, Taburno Piedirosso,
Sannio Piedirosso, and Sant'Agata dei Goti
Piedirosso. In the last three especially, wines
can be 100 percent Piedirosso.
Piedirosso is not particularly easy in the cel-
lar. The main diffi culty lies in its poor anthocy-
anin content, and all producers worry about
extracting color to the fullest degree without
risking bitterness. Massimo Di Renzo, wine-
maker at the world-famous Mastroberardino
estate says, “We do pre-macerations for three
days at about 8°C, nothing lower than that for
we'd never extract any color; then in fermenta-
tion we quickly bring the temperature to 24°C
to leech out tannins fast in order to help stabi-
lize the anthocyanins. Our perennial concern
is to both extract pigments and not lose them.”
For the same reason, at Mastroberardino they
micro-oxygenate the must to create oxygen
bonds between pigment molecules and tan-
nins, which is another method by which to sta-
bilize color. “The oxygen is an absolute neces-
sity, for at that stage the yeasts are still alive and
very active, and most of the available oxygen
gets used up by them,” summarizes Di Renzo.
Piedirosso wines are characterized by lower
