Once more in 2009 I did a tasting of some recovered grape varieties in Valpolicella. It’s a space dominated by three grapes: Corvina, Corvinone and Rondinella. Nevertheless before now, sooner than the phylloxera bottleneck, there have been additional varieties grown, a whole lot of which have been misplaced when the vineyards have been replanted. There’s curiosity in recovering these, and one in every of many attention-grabbing grapes that has been rediscovered is Spigamonti. Yesterday, I obtained to see it throughout the wild, at Tedeschi’s Maternigo vineyard, the place they’ve just a bit bit.
I’ve seen a number of vines, nonetheless Spigamonti stands out as totally completely completely different. It has a purple/copper tinge to the leaves, and the rachis of the flower clusters is a deep purple coloration. It’s a teinturier, which means the berries are purple fleshed, and it’s considered a extremely attention-grabbing mixing component every for Valpolicella and likewise Amarone. I don’t know the genetics, nonetheless presumably some molecular change that prompts anthocyanin manufacturing throughout the grape skins has been turned on not merely throughout the pulp of the grapes, nonetheless all by all the tissues of the vine.
I did some digging spherical. Spigamonti isn’t the principal determine of the variability: throughout the Vitis database its main determine is Aspiran Bouschet, and it was bred in 1865 by Henri Bouschet in France, who moreover produced the well-known teinturier Alicante Bouschet. It’s a cross between Aspiran Noir and Bouschet Gros.
It was discovered simply recently by a grower who sells grapes to Cantina Negrar, in a vineyard near Montecchio di Negrar. It’s not grown anyplace else in Italy. It was included throughout the Italian class of grape varieties in 2013.
