Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
September. In my view, this variety has huge
potential; Cesare Zeppa and Luca Rolle of the
University of Turin's agriculture department,
who have studied its viticultural and enological
aspects, agree. However, if we are even able to
talk about this variety, the credit must go to
Giorgio Falca, a passionate nature lover who
unexpectedly passed away in the summer of
2012 (it was his vines of Baratuciat that Zeppa
and Rolle studied). Falca singlehandedly
brought Baratuciat back to everyone's attention
by propagating a century-old pergola-trained
Baratuciat vine in a modern vineyard in Al-
mese. Wines I tried by Falca (he made only a
few hundred bottles a year) showed pretty
white-fl ower and delicately spicy notes that
make it not unlike a very delicate blend of Sau-
vignon Blanc and Gewürztraminer. I'm hold-
ing out hope that Baratuciat will be heard of a
lot more in the near future, and that Falca's
absence won't mean a loss of interest in this
great little variety and wine.
as Verduna or Verdona in the area around
Finale. The bunch is compound and sparse,
with oval or irregularly spherical, thin-skinned
berries; it changes color late in the season, at
the end of August. Galet believed that this Bar-
barossa was synonymous with the Barbarossa
variety grown on the island of Corsica, but
there is no real proof of this. Scalabrelli,
D'Onofrio, Paolicchi, and Bucelli (2005) stud-
ied the genetic and ampelographic characteris-
tics of vines identifi ed in the Lunigiana, and
found that Barbarossa ripens well, has moder-
ately loose clusters and low susceptibility to rot,
and gives very good-quality wines.
Where the myriad of other grapes called
Barbarossa is concerned, there's practically no
chance that any of them are related, though in
the absence of genetic profi ling, I have no way
to be sure. In 1955, Mario Pezzi, former owner
of Fattoria Paradiso in Bertinoro in Emilia-
Romagna discovered a century-old vine of a
variety that he also called Barbarossa, but some
think it was actually Centesimino. Zulini,
Russo, and Peterlunger (2002) mentioned a
Puglian Barbarossa, while Costantini, Monaco,
Vouillamoz, Forlani, and Grando (2005)
reported on a Campanian Barbarossa variety.
wines to try:
Giorgio Falca. Casa Ronsil owns
sixty-, and even eighty-year-old vines, and
makes a wine called Maestro that is 60 percent
Baratuciat, but no pure version unfortunately.
wines to try:
I haven't yet tasted any monova-
rietal wines made with the Lunigiana Bar-
barossa. The Barbarossa by Fattoria Paradiso in
Emilia-Romagna is fruity and thick, with
almost red-fruit jam fl avors, but with vibrant
acids giving it a light palate presence. It's a
medium-bodied wine that will match well with
simple pasta dishes and pizza; I wouldn't hold
on to it for more than a year or two.
Barbarossa
where it's found:
Liguria.
national registry
code number:
not registered.
color:
white.
Though there are many Barbarossa varieties
(Di Rovasenda alone lists thirteen different
ones in 1877), the one I describe here is the one
historically grown in Liguria and is still found
in sporadic rows; other Barbarossa varieties are
grown today in Emilia-Romagna and Calabria.
Apparently the variety is named after Barbe-
Russe, a famous Turkish admiral and corsair
whose real name was Khair Ad-Din, who con-
quered Algiers, Tunis, and Nice in 1543, but
this may only be the stuff of legends. For this
reason some have hypothesized a Middle East-
ern origin for this variety. The Ligurian variety
is also known as Barbarossa di Finalborgo, and
Barbera Bianca
where it's found:
Piedmont, Lombardy.
na -
tional registry code number:
20.
color:
white.
Barbera Bianca is an ancient variety origi-
nating from the Aqui and Alessandria territo-
ries in Piedmont, though a Barbera Bianca,
possibly not the same grape, was also grown in
