9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
9,4 Mb - formato pdf - Enoteca Regionale
Create successful ePaper yourself
Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.
TOLLO AND ORTONA GRAPES<br />
The vines known as Regina bianca or, more commonly, Pergolone, which produce<br />
dessert grapes, are still very widespread in the area between the Rivers<br />
Alento and Sangro, in the north of the Province of Chieti.<br />
Tollo, Ortona, Crecchio, Arielli, Canosa Sannita, Poggiofiorito, Giuliano Teatino,<br />
Miglianico, Francavilla, Ripa Teatina, Frisa (north-west territory bordering<br />
on Ortona) and San Vito Chietino (north-west territory bordering on Ortona)<br />
are the territories associated with this fruit.<br />
Top viticulture experts tend to agree that the European vine is indigenous and<br />
even existed before humanity.<br />
In Abruzzo the use of vines, and hence grape-growing techniques, date back<br />
to the Iron Age. It seems that the Etruscans introduced the technique of supporting<br />
vines with trees. The great poets of antiquity were also fascinated<br />
by viticulture in the Abruzzo area and there are many descriptions of vines<br />
and wine in their works. Ovid celebrated his Sulmona, the cradle of Abruzzese<br />
viticulture, writing: “A land given by Ceres, rich and so fecund with grapes...”<br />
(Amores, 11, 16, 1-2).<br />
Information about cultivation of grapes in the Province of Chieti can be found<br />
in several documents as early as the end of the 1200s and in the centuries<br />
that followed there was an evident lively trade in wines, mainly along the<br />
coast. Numerous ships loaded with wine sailed from the ports of Ortona and<br />
Vasto, in fact, and took enormous amounts of it to the northern markets and<br />
to those on the nearby Balkan coasts. Minutes drawn up by the Council of<br />
the Decurions, who governed the town of Ortona at that time (1566), state<br />
that the Council approached Charles de Lannoy, who had been given the town<br />
by Charles V, saying that Ortona made its living with “olives, vines and fruits<br />
of those vines” (A. Falcone, Ortona nel settecento, page 27). In the periodical<br />
“L’agricoltura abruzzese” - July, August, September 1916 – nos 7-8-9 –<br />
the lawyer Nicola Berardi, consultant to the municipal council of Ortona a<br />
Mare, wrote “Amidst so much failure, an excellent grape harvest is expected,<br />
however, and Pergolone has been picked. These superb dessert grapes<br />
are usually exported to Switzerland and about 3,000 quintals have been<br />
shipped, at prices of 33-37 lire per quintal”. In issue 3 of the same review,<br />
March 1926, the oenologist Renato Toni wrote as follows in his report La<br />
coltivazione dell'uva da tavola: “Our vineyard workers are improving and perfecting<br />
their skills so that they are even experimenting more precise cultiva-<br />
tion without calling upon specialists. Many young and intelligent figures are<br />
concentrating their enthusiasm on the vineyards to intensify crops and increase<br />
income. Their management expertise can be applied thoroughly to<br />
this important dessert grape industry”. Land register sheets that refer to the<br />
municipal territories of Ortona and Tollo indicate average grape production<br />
in the six-year period 1923-1928, stating that 21,547 quintals of dessert grapes<br />
were produced (Istituto Centrale di Statistica del Regno d’Italia, Catasto<br />
agrario VIII Compartimento degli Abruzzi e Molise – Province of Chieti, 1929).<br />
Several photographs in Chieti State Archive show Ortona’s 11 th Grape Festival,<br />
held sometime in 1930s or 1940s. At that time there were typical parades<br />
of allegorical floats whose theme was the grape harvest, with the enthusiastic<br />
participation of local folk and the Authorities (Chieti State Archive, photographic<br />
documentation of the towns in the Province of Chieti in the 1930s.<br />
Published by Tinari, Villamagna).<br />
Cultivation of dessert grapes gradually extended and quite constantly until<br />
the time immediately after WWII, when it boomed to the point that in 1,355<br />
hectares were reached in 1941, followed by 1,425 hectares in 1947, 8,025<br />
hectares in 1960, and the peak at 13,605 hectares in 1974. Sometime in the<br />
1950s this rapid growth began to embrace the Tollo area too and many new<br />
installations were added. Here farming of dessert and wholesale grapes developed<br />
to the point that the biggest cooperatives are now located on Tollo<br />
territory and include Ortona producers.<br />
The Cardinal cultivar is a more recent introduction than the historic<br />
Pergolone. The variety comes from America and was first introduced to Italy<br />
in the Latina area, then it was taken to Apulia and subsequently to Ortona.<br />
In 1953 Tommaso Di Bartolomeo of Ortona brought some Cardinal rooted<br />
vine cuttings back from a visit to the Formentini vineyard in San Ferdinando<br />
di Puglia. In 1954 he planted the first hectare of Cardinal grapes in the<br />
Cocciadomo district of Ortona.<br />
In 1955 Vincenzo Cavuto began to grow Cardinal grapes in Tollo. In 1965, by<br />
pure chance, it was discovered that the varietal would produce early fruit if<br />
cultivated in a greenhouse. In the Foro district of Ortona several Cardinal<br />
vines were being grown with tomatoes that were covered for the winter to<br />
achieve early ripening and this was the moment when Cardinal also<br />
matured early.