Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the excellent DOC blends Costa d'Amalfi Bianco,
Furore Bianco, and Ravello Bianco. The vines
are really a spectacle, trained in canopies and
hugging the incredibly steep rugged shoreline.
Fenile ripens early, in late August or early Sep-
tember, and needs to be picked very quickly as
its thin skin breaks easily when the grapes are
ripe. Given the extremely high quality of wines
made with it (usually in association with other
local grapes such as Ripoli and Ginestra), I only
wish there was more of it to go around. Make no
mistake: white wine blends from this part of
Italy are some of the country's greatest white
wines, so it's a shame there isn't anyone trying
to bottle a monovarietal Fenile wine. In fairness,
given that the Fenile vines are interplanted with
many other varieties in messy hodgepodges of
usually gnarly old vines, and that there are no
large vineyards in the area, making a monovari-
etal Fenile (or Ripoli or Ginestra) wine would be
a diffi cult proposition indeed.
lini in 1824. Also called Forcellina, Forsellana,
and Forsella, it was well studied and described
only in the twentieth century, fi rst by Zava
(1901) and then by Sormani Moretti (1904). A
more detailed and recent ampelographic
description is by Cancellier (1980). The bunch
is medium-sized, cylindrical, compact, usually
not winged; the berries are medium, irregu-
larly elliptical, with a thin but resistant blue
skin. Due to these morphologic characteristics,
it is not an ideal variety for air-drying, so it's not
suitable for Amarone production. Vigorous but
sensitive to grey rot, it ripens in September.
Forselina is a very interesting variety giving
lovely light red wines redolent in strawberry
and raspberry aromas and it may have quite the
future as a blending agent for Valpolicella and
Bardolino. As I happen to love delicious, bal-
anced, light red wines, I wouldn't mind seeing
some forward-thinking, risk-taking producer
try a hand at a monovarietal bottling, but
admittedly, I am in the minority on this one.
Forcella
Francavidda
where it's found:
Emilia-Romagna.
national
registry code number:
not registered.
color:
white.
Forcella is a recently discovered ancient vari-
ety that was found surviving as a centenary
vine in the cloister of the Santa Maria in Regola
church, a former Benedictine convent located
right in the middle of the busy city of Imola.
Forcella was well known in centuries past, and
Acerbi described it in his treatise on the grapes
of Bologna (1825); Agazzotti (1867) and
Cavazza (1904) also describe this variety. For-
cella is not to be confused with Albana della
Forcella, a biotype of Albana characterized by a
bifi d cluster.
where it's found:
Puglia.
national registry
code number:
85.
color:
white.
This variety is also known as Francavilla,
after the small town near Brindisi that gives
this variety its name (the town's name is actu-
ally Francavilla Fontana). The cluster is
medium-large, pyramidal-cylindrical, rarely
compound, and can at times be very sparse.
The berry is also midsized, round, with a thick,
green-white skin. Clonal research begun in the
1970s and continued until the 1990s has pro-
vided two clones, CRSA-C134 and CRSA-C135,
originating from two very old vineyards located
in Francavilla Fontana and Ostuni. Clearly, the
two have slightly different phenotypes. Fran-
cavidda is usually harvested in mid- or late Sep-
tember, but it has fallen out of favor over time
because it is too sensitive to spring frosts and to
cold weather in general, as well as to diseases.
The variety's geographic distribution has not
changed much over the centuries, and today it
continues to be grown over a total of about ten
Forselina
where it's found:
Veneto.
national regis-
try code number:
317.
color:
red.
Called Forselina because it frequently has
forked shoots (most likely a result of viral dis-
ease), this variety was fi rst mentioned by Pol-
