Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
Giallo today appears to live in a few sporadic
rows in the Lazio countryside around the town
of Cori. These vines are mostly grown by Marco
Carpineti, in my view Lazio's most talented and
best wine producer. Carpineti's grapes have
not yet been studied by a university-trained
ampelographer, and DNA profi ling has not
been carried out either, so defi nitive conclu-
sions cannot be drawn. Therefore, whether the
grape he uses really is Greco Giallo, or even a
true
Greco
for that matter, is a matter of conjec-
ture; however, I can vouch for the fact that his
Greco Giallo looks like no other grape variety I
have ever seen. The grape bunch is small and
downright scrawny, but most typical are the
berries: small and round, a very bright, pale
lemon yellow, so pale, they are practically trans-
lucent. In fact, you can see the pips right
through the skins. It is not a particularly resis-
tant variety and is a miserly producer, explain-
ing why it was abandoned over the years by
practical-minded farmers.
Greco Moro is another grape grown in the
countryside of Cori in Lazio, and virtually only
by Marco Carpineti, owner of the eponymous
wine estate. Greco Moro takes its name from
the dark coloration of the berries, which when
ripe have a dark, rusty hue (
moro
meaning
Moorish, or dark skinned). It's characterized by
much larger, more tightly packed bunches and
bigger, round berries with much thicker skins
than the Greco Giallo.
Greco Moro is more susceptible to botrytis
than Greco Giallo, but in fact both varieties vir-
tually disappeared because of disease sensitiv-
ity and poor yields. When Greco Moro yields
are allowed to creep up, botrytis goes rampant,
something made easier by the variety's com-
pact bunch (in this respect, Greco Giallo has an
advantage); at 80 quintals per hectare Greco
Moro performs well (a quintal is a commonly
used measure of weight in Europe, equivalent
to one hundred kilograms), but at 150 quintals
per hectare the harvest is at risk because Greco
Moro is easily overcome by botrytis from one
day to the next, especially in rainy autumns. In
any case, signifi cant plantings of both Greco
Moro and Greco Giallo, from massal selections,
were reintroduced in 2009 at the very high-
quality Cincinnato social cooperative winery in
Cori. In fact, you still cannot buy either of these
Greco
(or believed to be
Greco
) varieties from
nurseries. As with Greco Giallo, neither aca-
demic ampelographic studies nor DNA profi l-
ing have yet been carried out on Greco Moro.
What studies have been performed, and my
own observations compiled over the years,
describe the leaves of Greco Moro as medium-
sized, with fi ve lobes and very jagged: they are
quite obviously much bigger than those of the
Greco of Campania. The grape bunch is coni-
cal-pyramidal in shape, and the medium-large
berries round and tightly packed. Greco Moro
is characterized by medium vigor and good
fertility.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
Marco Carpineti uses this grape variety to
make its famous, award-winning Moro wine, a
blend of Greco Moro (90 percent) and Greco
Giallo (10 percent) though just fi ve years ago it
contained as much as 20 percent Greco Giallo.
Given that I liked Carpineti's Moro wine much
more when it was made with larger percentages
of Greco Giallo (which, in my opinion, gives a
more refi ned wine than Greco Moro), I can
only hope that he starts producing and using
more of this grape.
wines to try:
There are no monovarietal wines
made with Greco Giallo. There is 10 percent
Greco Giallo in the blend used by Marco Carpi-
neti (Moro), but clearly, at only 10 percent of the
total, this wine cannot speak of what Greco
Giallo is about.
Greco Moro
where it's found:
Lazio.
national registry
code number:
not registered.
color:
white.
Which Wines to Choose and Why
The wine folks at Cincinnato believed in Greco
Moro (and Greco Giallo); because of this, they
