Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
red cherry aromas and fl avors; but I have yet to
visit them, and so I couldn't possibly tell you
which Greco Nero variety the wine is made
with. I have not yet seen, let alone tasted, any
monovarietal Greco Nero wines from Sardinia.
compact nature of the grape bunch). This is
unfortunate, as these two groups of grapes,
Pignola
s and
Groppello
s, are altogether differ-
ent varieties.
Much like
Greco
and
Malvasia,
the term
Groppello
applies not to a single grape variety
but to a collection of different but more or less
related grapes. The main
Groppello
variety is
called Groppello Gentile; the two others that
make wines of note are Groppello di Mocasina
(also called Groppello di Santo Stefano or Grop-
pello Molinèr), which like Groppello Gentile is
also typical of Lombardy's Garda area, though
much harder to fi nd, and Groppello di Revò,
typical of the Val di Non in Trentino (and there-
fore sometimes called Groppello Nonesiano or
Groppello Anaune). Groppellone is a biotype of
Groppello Gentile with larger bunches and ber-
ries that is also grown in Lombardy. Finally, the
variety confusingly called Groppello Ruperti
and also found in parts of Lombardy is not a
Groppello
at all, but Lambrusco Viadanese, a
distinct grape and, as the name implies, a
member of the
Lambrusco
family (see
LAM-
BRUSCO
FAMILY entry).
The fi rst to mention the
Groppello
s was Ago-
stino Gallo (1565), and he included white grapes
in the group as well, though we now know that
what was then called Groppello Bianco is in fact
Nosiola, another Trentino variety. In the
Bollet-
tino Ampelografi co
of 1884-87, cultivation of
Groppello
s was reported in thirty-nine of fi fty-
two townships in the province of Rovigo in
Veneto; in the early 1900s, Viala and Vermorel
state that a generalized
Groppello
was very com-
mon in Lombardy (Bergamo and Brescia), in
Trentino (Val di Non and Tramin), and in
Veneto (Verona, Vicenza, Belluno, and Rovigo).
In 1964, Cosmo and Sardi expanded knowl-
edge further by distinguishing between Grop-
pello Gentile and Groppello di Santo Stefano
(which we know today to be identical to Grop-
pello di Mocasina), but many of their conclu-
sions regarding the various
Groppello
s were
wrong: Groppello di Revò and Groppello di
Mocasina are not identical and Groppellone is
not a biotype of Groppello di Revò.
Greco Bianco del Pollino
See
MONTONICO
BIANCO
, chapter 4.
Greco Bianco di Cirò
See
GUARDAVALLE
, chapter 4.
Greco Bianco di Cosenza
See
PECORELLO
BIANCO
, chapter 4.
Greco Bianco di Donnici
See
GUARDAVALLE
, chapter 4.
Greco Bianco di Lamezia Terme
See
GUARDAVALLE
and
MAGLIOCCO
, chapter 4.
Greco Bianco di Rogliano
See
PECORELLO
BIANCO
, chapter 4.
Grecomusc'
See
ROVIELLO
, chapter 4.
Greco Nero di Scilla
See
CASTIGLIONE
, chapter 5.
THE GROPPELLO GROUP
Groppello
is the name that has been used since
ancient times to describe grape varieties that
have an extremely compact bunch, reminiscent
of a closed fi st or a knot (
grop,
in local dialect,
means knot or fi st). This aspect led some
experts to refer to these varieties as
Pignole
(from
pigna,
pine cone, also referring to the
