Gone Grapes
By: Tom Joyner
Tags: Wine, Novels, Italy

After enjoying (and attempting to translate) Nico Orengo’s Of Violets and Licorice (Di viole e liquirizia), a novel set in the Langhe wine region of Piedmont, Italy, I’m now slowly working my way through another of his novels, The Anchovy’s Leap (Il salto dell’acciuga). This one is set in the western part of Liguria (the “Riviera di Ponente”), and it’s a short, rambling novel about anchovy fishermen, smugglers, and the salt monopoly in the old Republic of Genoa.

In one scene, three anchovy fisherman talk about figs, fish, and grapes:

During the lowering of the nets, if the sea was calm, with Ernesto at the oars, Giga at the nets, and Rebissu standing on the seat to lay them in the water, they paraded between Grimaldi and Ventimiglia, the land of the far Ponente. Rebissu looked at the coast and launched into a litany: “ You still see some Pissalutto figs, a few Porcasso, not one Berorfo — and it’s a good thing because they suck — but the Arbicone, as well as the Turco, Merlenco, or Carabroncin, are worth keeping.” Giga shrugged, “It’s the same way with fish. All of a sudden some disappear and you can’t find them anymore. Take the Girella. One time this was a sea of Girella. And now? You can’t buy one.” “Like grapes,” Ernesto added, “it wasn’t just Rossese or Vermentino, it was Negron, Barbarossa, Tabacca, Marcionira, Isoarda, Triglia, Tetina, Coasseu, Alicante. Many grapes…” “And many wines,” Rebissu and Giga replied.

When it comes to wine, I am merely a curious amateur. The list of grapes aroused my curiosity, but this amateur only recognized (however vaguely) the two main varieties, Rossese and Vermentino. I checked Wine Grapes: A Complete Guide to 1,368 Vine Varieties, Including Their Origins and Flavours. Besides Rossese and Vermentino, only Barbarossa and Alicante were listed. I confess that I don’t own the book — I only checked a list of grapes that happened to be available in the Amazon preview. Perhaps they are mentioned elsewhere as alternative names, but the book is too expensive for a casually researched article like this, so instead I looked elsewhere.

In Wikipedia’s list of Italian grapes, of the lost grapes mentioned by Ernesto, only Barbarossa is included. The online Vitis International Variety Catalogue, which has 23000 varieties of cultivated grapes (cultivars is the term they use), included Negron and Tabacca, but none of the other lost grapes.

But then googling the grape names turned up a 20-page document, I vitigni liguri dall’inizio dell’800 a oggi (Ligurian grape varieties from the 800s until today). It references the diaries of Georges Gallesio, an Italian botanist who traveled through Liguria in 1829 and 1830 and made notes on the grape varieties he encountered. Below is my rough translation of a section about the grapes of western Liguria. All the grapes cited by Ernesto appear in this list, and I’ve put their names in bold. (How accurate are my translations? I’m certain they’re not 100% correct, 75% sure they’re 75% correct, and 100% sure they’re at least 50% correct. I hope that helps.)

On August 30th the Count traveled to Menton, passing through Ventimiglia. Here’s the entire list of the grapes in Ventimiglia in 1829, which includes some varieties that still exist and others that we’ve lost track of: 1) Rossese: deep-red color, early ripening, medium-size, bunches of irregular shapes, with grapes mostly uniform and medium sized, producing deep-reddish wine, sweet or tart depending on how you want it, and mostly alcoholic. 2) Negron: pyramid-shaped bunches, berries tightly packed with a glossy-black color, short stems; the wine is more alcoholic and bitter, but good, better for aging and for sea voyages. 3) Crovaireura: irregular bunches, oblong grapes, black, good wine, alcoholic. 4) Caglian: almost similar to Rossese in color, larger and rounder grapes, darker on the inside, good and alcoholic wine. 5) Bruna: black, small bunches, elongated, small grapes, mostly uniform, alcoholic wine 6) Aleatico: almost similar to Rosesse in its shape; excellent wine, similar to the Aleatico from Tuscany. 7) Alicante: black, medium-sized bunches, excellent wine, strong, similar to Alicante, improves with age. 8) Barbarossa: rose-colored, large bunches and grapes, makes a lot but the wine is low alcohol. 9) Moscatello nero: shiny black, with small bunches, medium-sized grapes, strong wine with the taste of moscato. 10) Tabacca: white grape, huge bunches, some are 8 to 10 pounds, large and elongated grapes, produces many grapes, the wine is powerful and spirited. 11) Vermentino: white, large bunches, as are the grapes, wine not too alcoholic but excellent, mixing with Moscatello removes the harshness and makes it pleasant. 12) Marcionira: white grapes, early ripening, produces a lot of wine, even more than Tabaca, sweet and low alcohol 13) Rossese bianco: white grape, it has but a dissimilar color 14) Caglian bianco: large bunches, grapes also, low alcohol wine and subject to spoiling 15) Isoardo: white, long bunches, medium grapes, tightly packed; excellent and alcoholic wine 16) Coasseu: white grape, long bunches, thin, round grapes, medium, gathered, excellent taste, consistent skin; not very suitable for wine, stays fresh a long time. 17) Tetina: white grape, large bunches, long grapes, arched, almost without granules, not suitable for making wine, delicious taste, consistent, they keep in brandy, it is an excellent invigoration during winter. 18) Moscatellon: white grape, large bunches and grapes, elongated, very good, with the taste of moscato, not suitable for making wine, which comes out weak; it also keeps well in brandy. 19) Triglia: black grape, large bunches, large oblong grapes, stays fresh in the winter and also in brandy. This remarkable list of grapes deserves some consideration. First of all, there is the presence of different red varieties, now disappeared, and the definitive citation of Rossese as a valid red wine varietal — one that still exists and is much sought after — instead of as an exclusively white varietal. It will later appear in an entry published in the Pomona Italiana, that Rossese, even according to the same Gallesio, was a varietal made exclusively from white berries well known and esteemed in the Cinque Terre, in the hills of Savona, Albisola and Finale in properties owned by the same family. Furthermore it takes into account some particular characteristics of some varietals such as the capacity to produce wines destined to be preserved a long time on boats (after all, we are in Liguria), to produce elevated levels of alcohol, to yield large quantities of grapes for wine and for the table, and for keeping a long time in brandy or dried out.

Some of the grapes listed are “table grapes” unsuited for making wine, and it’s possible that some of the “lost” grapes are well-known grapes given different names, but it’s still a lot of varieties for such a small and relatively obscure wine region. I can’t help thinking that the 1368 varieties in Wine Grapes are just the tip of the wine-grape iceberg.