By Robin Day, Domain Day, Mount Crawford, South Australia

First published in the September/October 2012 issue of the Wine & Viticulture Journal

Gargenega is experiencing something of a renaissance in its homeland, Italy, and Domain Day proprietor and winemaker Robin Day – inspired by the Nashi pear, honeydew melon, tropical fruit characters, mouthfeel, mineral-like finish and acidity of the quality wines of Soave Classico – is leading the charge to create quality Australian versions of the variety.

Garganega would be a contender for the title of the most widely planted, yet least known variety in Italy, where it ranks as the sixth largest variety by area with more than 13,000 hectares planted.  Throughout Italy, the variety is known by a myriad of synonyms – D’Oro, Decanico, Dorana di Venetia, Garganega Comune, Garganega di Gambellara, Garganega Gentile, Garganega Grossa, Garganega Piramidale, Garganega Veronese, Gracanico Dorato, Grecani, Grecanico, Grecanico Bianco, Grecanico Dorato, Grecanicu Biancu, Grecanio, Greccanico, Lizzara, Malvasia de Manresa, Ora, Oro, Ostesa, Ostesona, and Recanicu.

The principal reason for it being so little known is that in the regions where it is featured in the varieties permitted by the DOC and DOCG rules, the wines are marketed by the name of the region, not by the name of the variety. It is the principal variety of Soave and Gambellara, and it also features in the wines of the lesser regions Colli Bereci, Bianca di Custoza and Colli Eugananci. Small plantings of the variety also exist in various parts of Umbria and Friuli.

It is in Soave that the long history of Garganega is most in evident. The earliest record of it, described as ‘Garganica’, dates back to 1495 when it was recorded in the ‘Trattato dell’Agricultura’ (Treatise on Agriculture). In Sicily it is known as Grecanico. Recent DNA typing studies have shown that the Grecanico of Sicily and the Garganega of Soave are identical. It has also been shown by DNA examination to feature strongly as a parent of many Italian grape varieties.

In Soave, Garganega has developed its two-part reputation. On the deep, fertile soils of the flats around the hill-top town of Soave, it shows its tendency to crop heavily, producing wines that often have underwhelming flavour and overwhelming acidity. Some of these can be purchased for less than €2 per bottle at the local cooperative winery. The high crop, mass-produced wines have been responsible for the negative image attached to Soave in former times. This became the challenge that growers and winemakers of Soave Classico had to overcome. With the aid of clonal selection to single out better flavoured, less abundant variations, crop reduction and careful site selection, the modern high quality wines of Soave Classico have evolved. These effects are well demonstrated in the excellent wines from the pioneers of this renaissance of Soave, Pieropan, Anselmi, Pra and Inama.

This first rank of quality producers of Soave Classico is being reinforced by more and more quality wines from other producers, which eventually will make dismissive wine writers take Soave and Garganega as seriously as they should.

At Domain Day, we were fortunate enough not to be prejudiced by the bland commercial wines of Soave. We first experienced the good features of the variety in Soave Classico – its Nashi pear, honeydew melon and tropical fruit characters, its excellent mouthfeel stemming from a surprising amount of viscosity and its lingering, mineral-like finish co-joined with excellent acidity. We are continually reminded that the wines mature very slowly without developing the strong secondary bottle-age characters so obvious in some varieties. We have also been impressed with the capacity of Garganega to make dessert wines. Our version, the 2008 Dolcezza, is specifically tailored for enjoyment with fresh fruit and fruit-based desserts, the territory left vacant by over-sweet Australian dessert wines. The characteristic mineral finish gives this style of dessert wine a lingering savoury appeal.

We first planted Garganega at Domain Day in 2001 and made our first wine in 2004. The clone that we planted, clone 69, is one of the newer, less vigorous and less prolific clones but its cropping level still gets our undivided attention. The heat summation w e experience at Mt Crawford makes our site significantly cooler than Soave Classico, prompting us to plant Garganega on our warmest northern slope. It is a late developing cultivar with late budburst and late season crop maturity. In our experience, it is moderately sensitive to water stress and we have straw mulched it accordingly. Garganega is very slow to go into dormancy and to lignify in winter; leaves hang on into June in most years, even in the cold winters at Mt Crawford.

Morphologically, it is somewhat unusual. Leaves are distinctly lobed, and foliage is lighter green than many cultivars. Bunches are very large (up to 250 grams), winged and very open. The bunch size has dictated that we take significantly larger samples than for ‘normal’ cultivars. Characteristically, the flower scar on the outer pole of the berry (on the opposite side to the attachment point) is quite marked, giving a lenticel-like, almost scarred appearance. In our first cropping season this was a concern, as it had the appearance of some form of possible berry damage that could not be accounted for. Reassurance came only from examination of a number of Soave promotional photographs which indicated that it was a widespread characteristic of the cultivar. Berries are spherical, large and thick skinned, which seems to make the variety fairly disease resistant.

We have observed significant benefits from fruit exposure to develop flavour in our relatively cool climate and, accordingly, we have run lifting wires so that we can lift the canopy and gain some fruit exposure to morning sunshine.

Even though the clone we have planted is a lower yielding one, the crop level combined with its late-season ripening make ripening of a heavy crop problematic.

We aim to achieve about 12.5ºBaumé at which point good fruit flavours are retained in the grapes, but this can only be achieved by significant crop thinning, often as high as 30 per cent. We have experimented with the timing of crop thinning. Due to the lateness of the cultivar and the berry and bunch size, we favour late-season thinning to minimise the effects of fruit size compensation. Shoot thinning is not a requirement for ventilation, and may possibly result in significant compensation as well.

The winemaking of the Domain Day Garganega is conventional, modern Australian with the influence of more traditional methods. We crush, must cool and press into juice settling tanks with a fairly generous free run cut at about 650 litres per tonne. From a winemaking perspective, the next aspect is perhaps the most important and 30 years as a winemaker for a large mainstream company has been a difficult background to approach it from. We simply settle for a number of days, but when we rack the juice, it is a deliberate approach to pick up a proportion of fluffy juice solids. This helps to develop the long Italianate finish that sits so well with this cultivar. The lingering ‘white grape tannin’ effect is more at home at a casual lunch with some full-flavoured food than it is on a wine show judging bench, and we also believe the flavours of the variety are fresher and better uncluttered by wood influence.

The Domain Day Garganega has achieved a significant following in its seven vintages, especially considering the cultivar was almost completely unknown by most Australian drinkers when we began producing it. While it is true that nothing is actually easy to sell, we have found that once it is tasted, the Garganega registers with significant appeal to the consumer, which we put down to the same features that enticed us towards the cultivar – its subtle but attractive fruit aromatics, the even anatomy of its palate and the refreshing persistence of its finish.

Garganega

By Peter Dry, Emeritus Fellow, The Australian Wine Research Institute

Background

Garganega (gah-gah-NEE-gah) is one of the major white varieties of Italy with the largest plantings in the north east, particularly in the provinces of Verona and Vicenza.  Globally there were 15402 ha in 2010 (down 7% from 2000), close to 100% in Italy. Garganega makes up 14% of the planted area of Veneto. It has a significant genetic variability—at least four biotypes have been identified. Garganega is mainly used in the DOC Soave of Veneto, where it makes up a minimum of 70% of the blend with Trebbiano and Chardonnay. It is also grown in Sicily (as Grecanico) and Umbria. There do not appear to be significant plantings in any other countries. Synonyms include D’Oro, Dorana di Venetia, Garganega Comune, Garganega di Gambellara, Garganega Gentile, Garganega Grossa, Garganega Piramidale, Garganega Veronese, Grecanico, Grecanico Dorato, Lizzara, Ora, Oro, Ostesa and Ostesona. In Australia there are currently at least 10 wine producers, mainly in Vic. and SA.

Viticulture

Budburst is mid-season to late and maturity is mid-season.  Bunches are medium to large and loose to well-filled. The medium berries have juicy pulp and neutral taste. It is vigorous with semi-erect growth habit. Yield is moderate to high depending on clone. On fertile soils, it may be excessively vigorous and prone to overcropping.  It generally requires good canopy management. The best Soave wines come from the least vigorous vineyards on the slopes and lower yielding vineyards. Cane pruning is used in cool climates but spur pruning is successful in warmer climates. Susceptibility to Botrytis is said to vary between biotypes; however, each of the seven clones currently available in Italy has low susceptibility to Botrytis.

Wine

Garganega wines are generally light bodied in a range of styles including sparkling wine. When picked relatively early, wines are zesty with moderate to high acidity; descriptors include apple, lemon and almond. With greater maturity, wines are juicier and more mouth filling; descriptors include green melon, pear and tropical.