The Timorasso grape variety: Characteristics, history, and growing environment

If Nebbiolo stalwarts such as Vietti, Roagna, Borgogno, and La Spinetta are procuring vineyards outside of their core areas, to make a white wine from a recently re-discovered grape variety, then something must be afoot. And what is afoot, according to Kerin O' Keefe (one of today's leading Italian wine experts) is "one of the most exciting wines coming out of Italy right now" which "boasts more depth, body and complexity than many Italian whites." Berry Bros and Rudd, a historical UK wine retailer, tags the wine as "one of the most exciting autochthonous grape varieties to surface in recent years." These, and many other such laudatory comments, have been directed at wine made from the Timorasso variety. In this post I examine the underlying grape variety.

Characteristics
"Timorasso is a native grape variety of the province of Alessandria, with a quality white-berried grape, grown essentially in the Curone, Grue, Ossona, and Val Borbera valleys, in an area where the vine finds a valid 'habitat' thanks to the soil, sunshine and the position sheltered from the winds" (Consorzio).

According to stradacollitortonesi.com, the Timorasso variety is a part of the ampelographic heritage of Liguria, Piemonte, Lombardia, and Emilia Romagna and is assumed to have originated somewhere between Liguria and Piemonte. The characteristics of the variety are shown in the chart below.

D'Agata identifies a "first degree parentage relationship between Lambruschetto and Timorasso while the Lambruscos from Emilia-Romagna were genetically distant."

Cultivation Challenges

Cultivation of the variety is challenging and has partly been responsible for it going from one of the most planted white varieties in Piemonte to being convincingly supplanted by Cortese in Alessandria. Elisa Semino (quoted in Civita del bere): "... difficult to follow in the vineyard, because it has thick foliage and the shoots must be well-managed: they must be sorted in the row when they are still young so as not to break them. It has good production but requires green pruning to rebalance the right amount of branches/vine."

In a conversation I had with Marco Volpi of Cantine Volpi, he mentioned that the variety had experienced a steady decline over the preceding century due to (i) the amount of work required in the vineyard, (ii) its susceptibility to illness, and (iii) its relatively low yield. For the best results, he said,  the grape has to be harvested at optimal ripeness but care has to be exercised in this pursuit as it is susceptible to sunburn. Leaves have to be removed to provide access to sunlight but should not be the leaves that provide direct shade from the sun. 

In response to a question regarding the pros and cons of Timorasso, Gian Paolo Repetto (Vigneti Repetto) said that the only pro was the possibility of producing a great wine. That has to be balanced against a number of negatives:

• It is a difficult variety to grow
• Material sticks to the equipment during pruning and have to be constantly cleaned off
• Double and triple buds at bud break; these have to be cleaned out manually
• The short distance between buds are a disease risk
• Sunburn is an ever-present risk.

A grower with both Timorasso and Cortese in his/her vineyard will put three times more work in the vineyard for the former. Growers deserted Timorasso in the past because the market did not reward them for the effort expended. 

Climate Change

According to Roberto Semino (La Vecchia Posta), "To respond to climate change, we are starting with soil management, with come cover crops between the rows, part of the gradual lightening of the soil to let the few rains penetrate."

History

According to villalaskovia.pl, Pier de Crescenza, author of the first agricultural encyclopedia, included an ampelographic description of Timorasso in his 14th century volume.  Subsequent ampelographers, including De Maria and Leardi (1875) and Di Rovasenda (1877), documented Timorasso as a noble variety (Ian D'Agata, Native Wine Grapes of Italy).

At the beginning of the 20th century, the variety was a key component in Torbolino of Tortona, a yeasty sweet wine which was bottled in mid-fermentation and was noted for its cloudiness, and "unfortunate taste and quality." Almost 30,000 quintals of this wine was sent to Switzerland and Germany, with much of it reformatted and sent back into Italy for sale under a number of guises.

The grape was on the verge of extinction in the 1980s when Walter Massa, of Vigneti Massa, encountered a few vines in his vineyard and began experimenting with them. He was so pleased with the initial results that he begun searching out vines in neighboring vineyards. As time went by, neighboring producers noted his success and began producing the wines. 

Growing Environment

In the past, the vineyards were widespread in the valleys previously mentioned, valleys which are "notoriously wild and difficult for many agricultural crops." The Timorasso vine prefers poor and marginal soils with especially limited water reserves. The current Timorasso growing environment is illustrated in the chart below.

The average vineyard size in the chart above is based on a total of 43.2 ha spread over 18 vineyards. It should be noted that Volpe (10 ha) and La Spinetta (5 ha) represent almost 1/3 of the total hectares. If their numbers are removed from the population, the average vineyard size declines to 1.76 ha.

The information on vineyards provided in the chart above was developed from an 85-record database of Timorasso producers which I have been constructing over the past few months. Going forward I will be growing the database with new entries as well as fleshing out the areas where things are currently skinny.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme