68 LEXPERT MAGAZINE
|
MARCH 2017
PHOTO:
SHUTTERSTOCK
WINE
LOCATION: Friuli Venezia Giulia region of Italy
HERE'S A TRIVIA question for the self-acknowledged wine
geek: which wine region in the world has the most autochthonous
(i.e., native) grape varieties?
e answer, which may surprise you, is Friuli Venezia Giulia.
To locate it, think of the map of Italy, which resembles a limb in a
boot. Well, to put it indelicately, Friuli, in the extreme northeast of
Italy, would be the buttock: 7,845 square kilometres of mountain-
ous landscape bordering on Austria, Slovenia and the Adriatic Sea.
Here you will find the Dolomites.
While most wine enthusiasts think of Friuli as a white wine re-
gion producing delicious dry Friulano, Ribolla Gialla and Malvasia
Istriana — as well as three of Italy's best dessert wines, Verduzzo,
Ramandolo and Picolit — the region boasts a bewildering number
of indigenous red varieties that even the most ardent wine lover may
never have heard of.
In his monumental book Native Wine Grapes of Italy, Ian
D'Agata writes about a seven-year DNA study between 2001 and
2008 on 178 grape varieties. e researchers came to the conclusion
that 38 varieties (21 red and 17 white) were to be found only in Fri-
uli, "and only 15 had been previously described in existing literature
and ancient documents."
e names of the most significant red varieties trip off the
tongue with the mellifluous sound of the Italian language: Refosco
dal Peduncolo Rosso, Schioppettino, Terrano, and Tazzelenghe,
which in the delightful lo-
cal dialect means "tongue
cutter," so-called because
of its searing acidity and
gripping tannins.
Friuli Venezia Giulia
may lack the international
recognition factor of Chi-
anti, Piemonte and neigh-
bouring Veneto, but it can rightly claim to be the nursery for the
entire Italian wine industry. e region currently produces 80 per
cent of all of Italy's rootstocks, which amounts to 20 per cent of the
total amount of rootstocks propagated in the EU counties and 25
per cent of what the rest of the world produces.
Why, you might ask, is this so significant? You have to go back
to around 1860 for the answer — the dreaded phylloxera blight,
which was the greatest scourge of the grapevine ever to be visited
on this planet.
e phylloxera louse is a tiny pale yellow sap-sucking aphid that
feeds on the roots and leaves of grape vines. eir voracious appetite
for the tender roots gradually cuts off the flow of nutrients and wa-
ter to the vine and eventually kills it.
e disease was carried to Europe in 1860 on the roots of a Vi-
tis labrusca grapevine variety called Isabella. Ironically, phyllox-
| DETOURS |
Italy's Native Sons
The Friuli Venezia Giulia wine region has the most autochthonous grape varieties of anyplace in the world
Friuli Venezia
Giulia region
