Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
farmers and landowners were unlikely to
engage in the expensive uprooting of their
vines in order to plant the latest fl avor of the
month, as was done in many of Italy's wealthier
regions.
In a very important study by Costantini,
Monaco, Vouillamoz, Forlani, and Grando
(2005), which I shall be quoting time and again
in this topic, a total of 114 accessions of sixty-
nine local grape cultivars from Campania were
analyzed with eight microsatellite markers
(VVS2, VVMD5, VVMD7, VVMD25, VVMD27,
VVMD31, VrZAG62, and VrZAG79) in order to
evaluate their genetic diversity and relation-
ships. The SSR analysis found fi fty-six distinct
varieties. These fi fty-six varieties were com-
pared to a database containing genetic data of
cultivars from all over the world (including a
large number from Italy): no case of synonymy
was found, thus confi rming the uniqueness of
the Campanian genotypes.
ated by university researchers and private indi-
viduals include Marchione, Uva della Scala,
Palumbo, and Uva Attina. Antinello has just
been inserted into the National Registry as of
2011, as has Somarello Rosso. The latter is an
interesting attribution, since for the longest
time Somarello was considered identical to Uva
di Troia. Unfortunately, other ancient varieties
have disappeared or perhaps turned out to be
synonyms: the examples are too numerous to
list, but include grapes such as Cuccipannelli,
Pier Domenico, Tamiarello, and Maricchione.
Then again, this being Italy, I wouldn't be sur-
prised at all if someone someday discovers a
rickety, centenary vine of one of those suppos-
edly extinct varieties forgotten in the depths of
a remote Puglian countryside or mountaintop.
Nothing would make me happier.
Basilicata
This little region, tucked in between the heel
(Puglia) and the toe (Calabria) of Italy's boot,
makes only a few wines, but is blessed with
some great native grapes. While Aglianico is
known the world over, I wish people here would
start paying more attention to the lightly aro-
matic Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata. Time and
research money might also be well spent on
studying Malvasia Nera di Basilicata, which is
rarer than rare: even I have yet to see a vine, but
this doesn't mean it's not out there, and I plan
to meet up with it soon. Based on my last ten or
twelve years of vineyard walks, I am also keenly
aware that there is probably a bit more old vine
Aglianicone growing in Basilicata than people
realize. It's found in many of the Aglianico
vineyards planted many decades ago, which
helps explain differences between some
Aglianico del Vulture wines that go well beyond
anything
terroir
and winemaking might be
responsible for.
Puglia
In Puglia, almost 40 percent of the regional
acreage under vine was devoted to native grapes
as of 2010. The main native red grape varieties
in Puglia are Primitivo (better known to U.S.
wine consumers as Zinfandel), Negro Amaro
(correctly spelled as two separate words, despite
the practice of nearly all wine topics), and Uva
di Troia. These three red grapes, along with the
white grape Verdeca, another native, are in the
top ten most cultivated grapes of the region.
Slightly rarer but still noteworthy red natives
include Susumaniello, still mainly used as a
blending grape, and Ottavianello, a traditional
variety of Puglia better known elsewhere as
Cinsault. The best-known native white grapes
of Puglia are Verdeca, Bianco d'Alessano, and
Pampanuto, but most interesting is the aro-
matic Minutolo (originally but erroneously
called Fiano Minutolo, as it is not a
Fiano
),
which is not unlike a dry white muscat. Pure
monovarietal wines made with Minutolo have
been available for less than ten years. Other for-
gotten native grapes currently being reevalu-
Calabria
Even today, Calabria remains Italy's most fi ne-
wine challenged region: the vast majority of its
