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called Grecula, now extinct), a variety the
ancient Georgic Latin authors thought highly
of. Its very generous, opulent bunch is such
that in the 1960s and 1970s many believed
Greco to be identical to Riesling Italico (Welsch-
riesling), but the two varieties have since been
proven to be distinct.
It behooves all those who write and speak
about wine to be accurate when they broach
this Greco variety and its wines. Simply put, it
is incorrect to refer to Greco as Greco Bianco, as
Greco and Greco Bianco are two distinct culti-
vars (not clones or biotypes), and are histori-
cally associated with completely different areas
of Italy (Greco is typical of Campania, Greco
Bianco of Calabria). And as we have seen, Greco
Bianco is apparently Malvasia di Lipari, so it
really cannot be used as a name by which to call
Greco. Furthermore, it is also incorrect to refer
to Greco as Greco di Tufo, as is all too often
done (even in Italy), for greco di Tufo is not the
name of a grape variety but the name of a wine
made in a very specifi c, limited, area of Campa-
nia with the Greco variety. Historically, Greco
in Campania was often identifi ed with a place
name, such as Greco di Napoli, Greco di Torre,
and even Greco di Tufo, but the grape variety
was in fact always Greco and that is the offi cial
name used for it today. Admittedly, the intrica-
cies of the Italian language contribute to the
general confusion. Many writers and even aca-
demics will at times mistakenly refer to Greco
as “Greco Bianco” because the offi cial name for
it in the National Registry is “Greco B.” where
the “B.” stands for
Bianco,
meaning this is a
white grape. In fact all Italian grapes in the
National Registry have either a large “B.” a large
“N.” or an “Rs.” attached to the end of their
names: these abbreviations simply qualify the
variety in question as either a white, red, or
pink grape. Other examples might be “Sangio-
vese N.” (Sangiovese is a red grape) or “Fiano
B.” (Fiano is a white grape). Unfortunately,
without due attention to details such as these,
many speak of a generic Greco Bianco variety,
not realizing that there are two distinct culti-
vars, the more common and famous Greco of
Campania and the rarer and less famous (but
very high-quality grape, in my view perhaps
better than Greco) Greco Bianco of Calabria. In
fact, the offi cial name of the Greco Bianco vari-
ety in the National Registry appears as “Greco
Bianco B.” so hilariously, if you were to read the
whole thing out, the name of the grape would
be Greco Bianco Bianco; however, the “B.” and
“N.” are never read out. I point out that mis-
takes such as these are commonly made in the
academic world as well. For example, in an oth-
erwise interesting research paper (Caruso,
Galgano, Castiglione Morelli, Viggiani, Len-
cioni, Giussani, and Favati 2012) analyzing
wines made with Greco Bianco, there is no dis-
tinction made at any time between the study's
wines from Campania and those from Calabria.
As Greco Bianco is not commonly grown in
Campania (which is the home of Greco, not
Greco Bianco), it is highly unlikely that the
Campanian wines in the study were produced
with the Greco Bianco variety. Yet the study's
title and discussion refer only to “Greco Bianco”
wines.
The confusion between Greco and Greco
Bianco is but one example confounding both
those studying Greco for a living and those who
wish to know more about what it is they are
drinking. In 2005, Costantini, Monaco, Vouil-
lamoz, Forlani, and Grando suggested a genetic
identity between Greco and Asprinio (another
grape variety of Campania) based on microsat-
ellite analysis of four Asprinio accessions and
eleven Greco accessions, but I wonder. Notwith-
standing that drawing conclusions from a study
of only four and eleven accessions seems a rec-
ipe for disaster, as the available data under
examination is limited at best, over the years
I've observed these two varieties in many differ-
ent vineyards, and tasted wines made with each
myriad times, and I'm not convinced at all.
True, others have since confi rmed their genetic
identity, and morphologically the two cultivars
can resemble each other, as documented by
Boselli, Corso, and Monaco (2000), but they do
not always, and the wines are too different for
me to accept this proposed identity as likely. In
