Ep. 442 Sangiovese Lambrusco... | Table Grapes Part 2

Italian wine podcast is a proud media partner of wine to wine twenty twenty. This November twenty third and twenty fourth is the seventh edition of the business forum wine to wine. Featuring seventy sessions dedicated to the wine industry. Normally held in verona Italy. This is the first ever full digital edition of the forum. On November twenty first, wine spectator will kick off the proceedings with a free to register opera wine presentation. Featuring the hundred best Italian wines of the year. Point to wine twenty five tickets available at wine to wine dot net. Welcome to the Italian wine podcast. My name is Joy Livingston, and for the next several weeks, I will be bringing you some choice narrated content from the book San Jose Lambrusco and other vine stories written by Mr. Science himself, Professor Atiyoshenza, and Serena Eimazio, published by Positive Press dot net. To get a copy of the book, the kindle version is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from positive press. If you like the content we share each week, consider donating to our show. Find details at italian wine podcast dot com or on our social media channels. Sit back and get your geek on as we jump into the details stories and science of Italian wines and vines. An ancient legacy, table grapes, part two. In France, the revolution and the affirmation of the bourgeoisie associated with the scientific and cultural curiosity that pervaded the age of enlightenment led to the cultivation of table grapes concentrated in Champagne and around Paris. To become a sort of collector's fashion, An object of interest for scholars and enthusiasts who constitute rich variety harvests. Numerous treaties have been published that speak exclusively of table grapes for the production of syrups. Aggresto, a kind of balsamic vinegar, or dried grapes. The first indications are also given on the most suitable systems for breeding varieties with a distinction for those that can be cultivated with pergolas such as Moscato, Malvasia, and Chacellas. Only after the second half of the nineteenth century did table grapes become the object of industrial cultivation. Perhaps the first example of so called industrial fruit growing in the modern sense of the term. Replacing a suburban or marginal Viticulture carried out mainly for self consumption. Because of its symbolic content, grapes have always attracted the interest of the rich merchants and aristocrats of the northern European cities. Due to transport difficulties, The inadequacy of freight wagons in Mediterranean Europe, the lack of compressed air brakes that did not allow for fast routes to reach the English and German markets. Also, the cost of transport was often too excessive to be an economically viable trade. A Viticulture of table grapes was developed around the large cities and greenhouses. There were two types of greenhouses, fixed and mobile, and they used different heating cycles, so they could have up to four periods of maturation throughout the year. Even the varieties used, alfonse, la valet, Black Hamburg, Frankenthal, often obtained by cross breeding represented with their different precocity. An effective way to offer fresh grapes throughout the year. After the first World War, the convenience of producing table grapes in greenhouses was reduced due to the high cost of heating and the improvement of the railway network. The first regions that began to produce table grapes in a specialized way were Almeria in Spain and Pulia in Italy. As far as Italian viticulture is concerned, the production of table grapes has never played a significant role at least until the development of road and rail networks in the second half of the nineteenth century that made their transport from the production areas to the consumption areas economically lucrative. However, close to large cities such as Milan, Tourin, Florence, Rome, Rome, and Naples, there has always been a significant production of grapes for direct consumption. In nineteen thirty five Norberto Marzotto printed in Amplolography, the first written in Italy, and intended exclusively for table varieties, which shows the economic value of this type of cultivation. Curiously, the criterion of distinction between one variety to another is given by the resistance shown during transport. Only if they endured manipulation and movement were the varieties taken into account for large scale cultivation and destined for foreign markets. The others, even if worthy from an organellptic point of view, could only have importance on local markets, such as the Invernanga, Barishiana, The Trentina Bianca de Coli, Eogane, or the Dorata de Monte Gala. In this period, table grapes become the object of industrial cultivation, The first export initiatives were also carried out. The founder in this field was Francesco Cerio Denica Mufferato who later linked his name to canned peeled tomatoes. Who in eighteen seventy six began to sell Verdea Piacentina and Colombana Pizana in France. Then later in eighteen eighty five, he did the same in Germany coinciding with the opening of the Brenner railway line that had been inaugurated in those years. After World War one, due to that wine market crisis because of increased demands from northern European countries, increased as a result of the sharp contraction of greenhouse production by the Netherlands. Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian exports suffered competition from Algeria, Turkey, Greece, and France. Between the two wars, table grapes from Eastern European countries, particularly Bulgaria also arrived on the wealthy English and German markets. The success of Bulgaria grapes was due to the production quality and the favorable autumn weather conditions, which allowed them to extend the harvesting time. The varieties sold were also numerically small, as opposed to the Italian varieties which instead were fragmented into many varieties, not only of prime quality because often they were just wine grapes. In the first half of the twentieth century, sports from countries on other hemispheres like Chile, South Africa and Australia also began selling their products. And they had the advantage of bringing fresh grapes to European markets in early spring. In nineteen twelve, the national production of table grapes was about five hundred thousand quintals within which the contribution of southern Viticulture was weighted at forty five percent. The most important region was always Pulia with a slice of eighteen percent followed by Abruzzo at fifteen percent and Vanito at twelve percent. Twelve years later, in nineteen twenty four, Spain was the country with the highest quota of grapes exported with about five hundred thousand quintals followed by Italy with three hundred and ninety thousand. And France with two hundred and seventy thousand. England mainly imported from Spain while Germany imported from Italy. In this period, Belgium and Holland exported forty five thousand quintals of table grapes produced in greenhouses and mostly to Germany. In the nineteen thirties, the marketing of Italian table grapes covered a broad portion of the year, starting in mid summer, with zibi bodip Pantaleria continuing with the early sicilian grapes, Lullianca, Pánce precoche, Cassellas Dorre, and ending at the end of November with the late Southern regions, Prunez Stadella Boulia, Katalane Dela Campania, Buonvino, Bianco de la Brzzo, Pelegoreza, and Chiminita della cecilia, Apesorja, Bianca Dela Sarddena. During the Christmas period, preserve grapes are sold in fruit stores such as Anjanodal bolognese verdea and paradiso del Piacentino. Or left on the vine such as Pergoleze or Uva Dimarna from Abruzzo and Uva Di Trevaulte from Trapani. The development of new varieties and the introduction of modern Viticulture techniques lead to an improvement in the quality of the grapes sold in the rich markets of Northern Europe renewing interest in this fruit. After nineteen fifty five, production shifted even more decisively towards the south with a national production of three million quintals, of which four hundred thousand were exported. Apulia participated with about forty percent of the total. Barasana becomes the most cultivated variety followed by pergolese or Menavaca Regina. While in Abruzzo, the main variety is pergolese de tivoli, In Sicily after the abandonment of Chassalet Dorre, very early ripening varieties are mainly cultivators such as Santana de Lipcia, pan ceprecache and Madeline Angevin. The production in the province of Piacenza definitively disappeared. Even if the commercial producers in that area maintained their activity for a certain period, exporting the grapes from the south to the German and Swiss markets. The history of table grapes is a singular example of identity ambiguity as they are often confused with that of wine, but they have nevertheless presented important aspects of originality and cultural development. The lack of loyalty with respect to their relationship with the terroir and the transformation into wine has made the cultivation of table grapes more ephemeral among wine growers and more subject to changes in taste and market. But their cultivation in greenhouses in northern European countries has made their consumption and important custom during the Christmas holidays such as when wishing prosperity upon others. Contrary to what happened with wine product genetic modification has proved to be a determining factor in the development of table grapes. At the same time, the consumers demand for a healthy, high quality fruit has led to cultivation in heavily worked environments, such as Southern Italy. Thank you for listening to this week's installment of San Jose Lambrusco and other vine stories. We hope you expanded your horizons and gave your brain cells an Italian wine workout. We'll see you again next Thursday and remember. The kindle version of the book is available on Amazon and hardcover copies are available from Positivepress dot net. If you feel inspired to make a donation to our show, please visit us at the Italian wine podcast dot com. Find Italian wine podcast on Facebook and Instagram. Our Twitter handle is at Ita Wine Podcast.