It’s easy to talk about indigenous grape varieties. What’s needed is a way to truly enhance them

by Attilio Scienza 

The era of rootless grape varieties, also called international, now cultivated everywhere, whose wines are increasingly destined for the lower end of the market and for the confusion generated by a plethora of appellations of origin without tradition or qualitative merit, has come to an end. The question now is: what future lies ahead for Italian viticulture? The unresolved quarrel over the primacy of grape variety over environment, or vice versa, in determining the quality of a wine now belongs to the history of viticulture and saw, up until the “Age of Enlightenment”, the predominance of the place of production over the grape varieties themselves.

The return of indigenous grape varieties

J. Guyot was the first, in 1868, on the eve of the phylloxera crisis, to break this axiom with his revolutionary statement: “the genius of wine is in the grape variety”. The return of ancient or indigenous grape varieties to the world stage has revived the crucial role of the grape in wine communication, in an era in which there is no time for geographical insights or for the aura accompanying origin and history, in the face of a consumption based more on the mind than on the palate. Of these grape varieties, we often remember only their names, because they are curious, vernacular; we have now forgotten, after just a few years, the taste sensations of their wines, often produced with oenological techniques inconsistent with the characteristics of the grape and the remote locality where they are grown. What to do, then? Which path should be taken in a period of great changes in consumption, lifestyles and, not least, climate?

The dangers of globalisation

The pervasive element in every choice, whether of production or consumption, is globalisation: accepted by many for its positive contribution to cultural complexity and commercial feedback, considered by others disturbing and dangerous, and therefore rejected. Among producers and consumers, it is widely held to be the major culprit in the growing trivialisation of the sensory characteristics of wines produced all over the world.
Not negligible in this respect is also the role of communication and criticism, strongly conditioned by types of wines that are “perfect”, but without soul, and unable to practise an “eulogy of imperfection”. Imperfection is not defect, and is often the foundation of a counter-current wine, of an innovative wine.

Betraying tradition

But globalisation has also worked in the opposite direction, creating new opportunities for alternative forms of viticulture, such as biodynamics, in the attempt to maintain wine production expressions that the pressures of scientific progress tend to disrupt. But turning to “new age” philosophies to produce wine makes little sense, just as taking refuge in tradition as the antidote to the ills produced by research does. Nothing could be more false because, as Hobsbawm and Ranger wrote in The Invention of Tradition, traditions have always been invented and reinvented to satisfy the aims of people who sought, through them, to legitimise their power. To those who call for a return to tradition in wine production, one can instead reply that the most effective way to achieve this is through its faithful betrayal.
The interpretative paradigm that has driven viticultural progress over the centuries has been genetic innovation, represented by varietal circulation and the selection of intentional and spontaneous crosses.

Many indigenous varieties have remained in oblivion

After about two decades of great interest in indigenous grape varieties, on the part of wine estates, research and consumers, taking stock of the results achieved in terms of economic impact, it must unfortunately be noted that in terms of enhancement of grape varieties and the territories concerned, these results do not appear particularly exciting, even if due distinctions must be made: some grape varieties (a few) have achieved good results but, unfortunately, many others remain in oblivion. It is therefore necessary to disaggregate considerations in order to better direct efforts in the future.
In short, out of the thousand-plus indigenous Italian grape varieties, those of real quality (at least for producing a wine destined for a modern consumer) are very few, perhaps no more than a hundred. This does not detract from the fact that all of them have great value for the conservation of biodiversity and for use in genetic improvement programmes. Only some grape varieties, supported by successful DOC or DOCG appellations – such as Nebbiolo for Barolo, Barbaresco, Valtellina, or Sangiovese for Brunello, Chianti, Nobile, to name but a few examples – are expanding.

The polarisation of Italian viticulture

Some ancient grape varieties have been enhanced not thanks to institutions but due to the passion of a few winemakers (such as Timorasso by Walter Massa, Teroldego by Elisabetta Foradori, Sagrantino by Marco Caprai). Few grape varieties have emerged from oblivion in recent years and been entered into the National Register of Grape Varieties authorised for cultivation, the conditio sine qua non for being propagated and planted.
Underlying this complex phenomenon is the polarisation of Italian viticulture which, in recent years, due to the globalisation of international markets, has shifted from a widespread reality represented by a multiplicity of small appellations – where indigenous grape varieties were the qualifying element of their wines – to a polarised viticulture imitating the French model, where five or six appellations, known mainly abroad, represent most of Italy’s quality wine.

How to enhance indigenous varieties

This opacity in consumer choices has caused disenchantment, especially among older winemakers, whose income has been progressively eroded, leading them to transfer planting rights from southern regions to the wealthy vineyards of the north-east, where alongside established indigenous grape varieties such as Glera or Corvina, Pinot Grigio and grapes for sparkling wine production are in continuous expansion.
In this socio-economic scenario, moreover, some important initiatives from universities have been lacking, initiatives aimed at enhancing the indigenous grape heritage through viticultural research, with the proposal of cultivation models adapted to ancient grape varieties: such as controlling production per vine, studying the dynamics of ripening processes, understanding the effects of climate change to enhance the compositional peculiarities of these grape varieties. Peculiarities which, often, such as tannin typologies, acidity, colour stability, are unsuitable for producing modern wines. And a varietal oenology capable, in this respect, of proposing adequate vinification protocols.

Professor Attilio Scienza is the Scientific Coordinator of the Advanced Training Course
The wine of the future by Gambero Rosso