The broad outlines of the rebirth of the Timorasso variety -- and Walter Masa's role in that saga -- are known and accepted.
But is that all there is? Not that it is not enough, but:
- What was the state of affairs prior to Massa's "intervention"?
- Were other individuals involved in the nurture and/or pursuit, either directly or indirectly, of the variety during the Massa phase?
I will attempt to address these questions in two separate posts, beginning here.
According to Gigi Brozzoni (Piedmont: Golden Wines/3, Veronelli Guide, Vini d'Oro, 11/19/20), up until 1985, the Timorasso variety was "completely unknown to most' even though it was "well described in the large ampelographic collection published in the 1960s by the then Ministry of Agriculture ..." The ministry recommended that Timorasso be used to add flavor and structure to some "anemic" varieties growing in the region.
Both Kerin O'Keefe (Why You Should be Drinking Timorasso, winemag.com, 2/8/16) and Brozzoni point to the use of Timorasso as a table grape. The variety had a good reputation in the peasant world because "it provided thick-skinned grapes that could be eaten fresh" or it could be dried until Christmas "when the sugary berries cheered up the holidays" (Brozzoni).
In its role as a wine grape, Timorasso was not as well regarded. From the winemaker's perspective, it was a difficult variety to farm, with returns incommensurate to the effort expended.
From the consumer's perspective, the variety was unknown. In Massa's conversation with O'Keefe, he mentioned that his family added Timorasso to Cortese to make a white wine which was sold in demi-johns to wine merchants in other parts of Piemonte and Oltrepo Pavese. In an interview with Oscar Farinetti (Stories of Courage, Mondadori, Milan, 2013), Massa stipulates that Timorasso from Colli Tortonesi was vinified with other white grapes to produce a generic white wine which was sold in bulk to merchants and producers in Asti, Stradella, and Milan, among others. Thus, Timorasso was consumed within the context of other varieties, in denominations outside of its native home, and without the ken of the end consumer (Gianfranco Quiligotti, Il Timorasso e La Luna, tortonaggi.it, 7/21/16).
Vineyard cultivation in Colli Tortonesi declined continually during the 20th century, going from 8000 ha at its beginning to 2000 ha at its conclusion. Vinegrowing in the 80s and 90s suffered due to a general abandonment of: (i) the countryside, (ii) agriculture, and (iii) the vineyard (Quiligotti). Timorasso suffered within the context of the foregoing but, as mentioned previously, this was compounded by problems unique to the variety.
Enio Ferretti planted his first Timorasso vines (at what is now La Morella) in 1985 with cuttings from the vineyard of a friend in Sarezzano. The cuttings were grafted in Aqui Terme by the Ponte brothers. This was the first organically farmed property in the region and it has retained that farming practice for its vineyards up to this date.
Brozzoni pegs the first meaningful commercial mention of the variety as a standalone occurring in 1985; and in the context of a grappa. Antonello Bocchino, a Canelli-based grappa producer, in response to the single-grape grappas of the Friulian Giannola Nonino, invented a number of Piemonte single-grape grappas. Included among this lot was one called Timuasa, obtained from Timorasso pomace from the Tortona area.
This pomace had apparently been secured for Bocchino by Franco Martinetti (more about him in a later post) and she, in turn, gave the finished product to him. He, after further refinement, sold it under a generic name.
The first vintage of a Massa Timorasso would come to fruition two years after this grappa event, signaling the initiation of a period which I will refer to as the Late Modern history of the Timorasso variety. The Early Modern history of the variety is summarized in the following chart.
I will treat the Late Modern history in a subsequent post.
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