Majestic centuries-old vines, up to three meters high, climb, intertwine and make strong and luxuriant grapes grow, capable of resisting the parasite most feared by winemakers.
The ungrafted vines know how to create suggestive images that here and there underpin the Italian viticultural picture.
Since the second half of the 19th century, the rapid spread in Europe of phylloxera, a parasite native to North America, today in all wine-growing countries of the world, has caused the death of almost 80 percent of the European varieties attacked.
To save viticulture from the risk of extinction, the European vine began to be grafted, in the upper part, with the American one in the lower part, resistant to phylloxera attack, at least in the root part.
Although in Italy the phylloxera has found fertile ground for attacking the vines, some natural impediments under certain conditions have made it difficult to do so.
To make the parasite weaker, in fact, there are the altitudes of the vineyards, especially for altitudes of over a thousand meters above sea level, which produce significant temperature changes that make it difficult for the insect to survive.
A second factor that has often protected the plants from the attack of the parasite are the sandy, clayey or volcanic soils, which prevent the phylloxera from being able to move easily; lastly, considerable water stagnation for medium – long periods, given that the phylloxera does not survive in water.
Here, some Italian regions, which see one of the three conditions predominant, have seen some strains survive making it possible even today to preserve ungrafted vine vineyards, that is to say pre phylloxera, where foot refers to the roots of the vine, while the term frank means something free from constraints, and therefore a non-hybrid vine, with its own roots.
Examples of ungrafted vines are still today in Val d’Aosta or on Etna where the heights are significant, or in Sardinia, Sicily or Campania, with sandy and volcanic soils.
The Patriarchs of Feudi di San Gregorio
In Campania, in the Irpinia area, ungrafted vines are alive and tell a long-lived wine story day after day.
“Our territory has a historical presence of the vine, and has been only partially affected by phylloxera, for two reasons –
explains Antonio Capaldo, president of Feudi di San Gregorio, a winery founded in 1986 in Sorbo Serpico, in the province of Avellino with 300 hectares of vineyards owned, plus 200 of the contributors -.
The first are the sandy soils of volcanic origin which made the movement of the animal complex.
The second aspect is linked to the fact that the territory has always been very fragmented as a property and therefore often the vine alternated with many other crops, which somehow blocked the path to the parasite “.
When Feudi di San Gregorio began its wine adventure, several farmers in the area had vines of up to two centuries in their hands.
“The story of the farmers had left our agronomists quite skeptical
– continues Capaldo –
but then doing research together with the De Sanctis oenological school, which is the first institute of viticulture and enology in Italy, it was discovered that many of those vineyards were cultivated with vines since the end of the 19th century ”.
With this natural treasure chest in hand, which Feudi di San Gregorio calls “I Patriarchi”, the winery begins to study and work the vine, starting in particular from the “Dal Re” vineyard, with 400 ungrafted Aglianico plants in Taurasi, three meters high, harvested with the stairs to reach the higher bunches, from which Serpico comes out, a wine with a limited edition.
“That vineyard, like others, was raised by small farmers to grow grapes and that’s it.
It was grown high up to continue to work on the ground as well, such as potatoes or tomatoes.
Over time these vines have found their own evolution.
Each plant is different from itself.
The leaves, the characteristics of the bunch.
We have found more than 100 different biotypes ”.
From 1999 until 2010, Feudi di San Gregorio in collaboration with Professor Attilio Scienza, from the University of Milan and Professor Luigi Moio from the University of Naples, started a study, planting the biotypes discovered in the “Dal Re” vineyard in micro-vineyards.
“We have analyzed the most interesting ones.
We have chosen about twenty, which we have planted everywhere.
Today we only work with ungrafted clones, without rootstock.
We are realizing that, compared to American grafted vines, they have a completely different reaction even in the face of excessive drought or water stress.
A reaction that we are still studying ”.
