![]() It is the majority component of 100 DOC/DOCGs and nearly as many IGPs, while contributing in a lesser way to countless more. Sangiovese, on the other hand, is the most prevalent variety in four regions, and it substantially occupies nine others. And for those that would argue for nebbiolo’s supremacy as king, only an aesthetic argument would hold sway (a very valid one, mind you), as it occupies a tenth of the vineyard land, and most of it is in Piedmont. Based on 2015 data, sangiovese’s 55,100 hectares eclipse pinot grigio by over 12,000 hectares. Sangiovese is Italy’s most widely planted grape variety. Both in Italy and abroad, but it’s pretty hard to knock sangiovese’s credentials. Now, there would probably be some grumblings about that statement. Sangiovese is Italy’s most important grape, and by a stretch. Sangiovese harvest at Coriole in McLaren Vale Since then, sangiovese has taken hold across the country in diverse regions, spanning climates from the hot to the decidedly cool, from the maritime to the continental, just as it does in Italy. Lloyd didn’t exactly have instant success, but he persevered, working to both understand the variety and educate colleagues and consumers. Those vines were grafted, so a commercial, albeit tiny, harvest was yielded two years later. So, while Sangiovese is probably the pioneering Italian grape in this country, it was not until the 1970s that it was put through its paces by Penfolds and Montrose, and not until Mark Lloyd – after a revelatory trip to Italy – of McLaren Vale’s Coriole planted it in earnest in 1985 that sangiovese was given a genuine Australian accent. It is not until much later that we see indigenous Italian varieties planted, and until quite a bit later again that we see them take a meaningful foothold. Many of the old vineyards planted and often still maintained by Italian immigrants are planted to shiraz, grenache, cabernet sauvignon and the like. The cuisine travelled, although no doubt it has been reshaped in isolation, and vital ingredients were imported, but the approach to grape growing seems largely to have been built around adaption. With a country so possessive over its culture in microcosm, of the sanctity of subtle variations in a dish of pasta from one village to another, in the barely perceptible mutations of a grape cultivar from one zone to the next, it seems unusual that more cuttings weren’t stuffed in suitcases or wedged into boots for the long voyage. But though the Italians brought much with them, it is somewhat surprising that they did not bring wine grapes. ![]() Aside from the general input of industrious, hardworking folk, the impact on our understanding and approach to food and wine has been of incalculable cultural benefit. And it is unquestionable that modern Australia was given shape through this mass migration, and also pretty unarguable that we have been the better for it. ![]() Fleeing a country, a continent, cast into poverty by the legacy of two World Wars, Italians left ancestral homes to carve out new lives around the globe. ![]()
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