FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE NEW MILLENIUM: SAGRANTINO, ONE OF THE MOST ANCIENT REDS IN ITALY, WILL ALSO BECOME A WHITE WINE THANKS TO NATIONAL WINE STUDIES. EXPERIMENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MILAN AND CAPRAI WINERY

One of the oldest and most important red wines of Italy is adding a new color and will now also become a white wine. Thanks to national wine studies at the University of Milan and by the Arnaldo Caprai Winery (the name that has relaunched the Umbrian grape), a white variety of Sagrantino has been created. The much anticipated first harvest of the “new” Sagrantino is currently taking place at the experimental vineyards that span over 10 hectares of the Caprai estate. The original Sagrantino was created in medieval times as a wine used during the masses of the Franciscan order, and the new white version will soon be projecting this wine on into the future.
The white grape is not just a simple clone, but an “individual” plant that has the same DNA as the Sagrantino grape, but with a different colored berry. Marco Caprai, who is credited for relaunching the Sagrantino grape in today’s wine world, explains: “An entirely new chapter is beginning in the history of Sagrantino, which does not just mean aiming towards producing a white version of Sagrantino, but also taking on the future by using an ancient tradition. After over 10 years of research by a team of 10 agronomists led by Professor Leonardo Valenti at the University of Milan, we have finally been able to obtain a grape that, though not existing in nature, was latent in the genetic characteristics of the Sagrantino variety that is known today”.
This novelty was obtained by using, self-fertilization, one of the most common methods used to improve the genetics of a grapevine and create new varieties, and which allows for the creation of pure lines of a single variety. Although there is human intervention, it has nothing to do with molecular genetics and the transfer of genes. To the contrary of genetic improvement through vegetative changes, which exploits the heterogeneity of the characters that are manifested following a natural or induced bud mutation (as is the case for Pinot Bianco, Grigio, and Nero), the genetic improvement through self-fertilization is based on the disjunctioning of characters that reveal all of the genetic potentials of an individual vine.
Professor Leonardo Valenti explained, ”We chose various plants from the company’s old Sagrantino vineyards, which were isolated and then self-fertilized. From the grape clusters that were obtained from the fertilization, we collected the seeds, which were transferred to an experimental field, and then they became small plants. After a first selection from the population that was obtained, we chose 250 genotypes that we successively propagated vegetatively, among these Sagrantino Grigio, and, naturally, reds and whites”. This work has, thus, made it possible to reveal all of the genetic characteristics of the Sagrantino, both dominant and recessive, and among which there was the white variety. Valenti continued, “At the beginning we thought we had not sufficiently isolated the self-fertilized plants from contact with other pollens when we saw the white grapes, but DNA tests confirmed that it was a true Sagrantino: a white Sagrantino from a phenotypical point of view, but red from a genotypical aspect. We can presuppose, but without any type of confirmation, that in the genealogy of Sagrantino there is also the white Sagrantino but as a non-dominant character that, during its evolution, was effectively abandoned”.
This experiment falls under the long work by Caprai to unearth all of the qualities of the Sagrantino grape, from its genetic variabilities to all of the possible characteristics inherent in the variety, used to both select the best clones, as well as to discover the genetic origins of this vine, offering more long-term opportunities than just immediate productive implications. Valenti points out that, “Our work will have implications on a cultural level as well. The data that we are collecting will allow us, through DNA analyses and genetic comparisons, to reconstruct the existence or non-existence of connections between Sagrantino and other varieties. From a productive point of view, on the other hand, we are about to have our first harvest of white Sagrantino grapes, which will undergo analyses to establish whether it has the characteristics to be definitively vinified”. After receiving DOCG certification in 1992, the ancient varietal Sagrantino has been conquering the most refined palates and has already become part of the tight circle of the most requested top wines in restaurants and wine bars all over the world. The most authoritative guides have for years now consecrated Sagrantino di Montefalco Caprai as one of the best Italian wines, and it is precisely merit to Sagrantino that the town of Montefalco – rich with art works like the frescoes of Bennozzo Gozzoli – has now become part of the international tourist circuit.
The Arnaldo Caprai winery has joined other great names of the Made In Italy group that makes up Symbola, the Foundation for Italian Quality. It has also collaborated with the University of Milan since 1990 to select Sagrantino clones: among which, one of the most innovative projects is titled “At the Origins of Sagrantino”, aiming to discover a “sister” grape in the Caucasus area, the cradle of the European grape. If, in fact, a similar grape is found, Sagrantino would become the name of a process, a winemaking tradition connected to a territory, a religious work, and to the culture of Montefalco: it would become a company name, a logo for a product of international tutelage falling under the laws of registered brands. In 1995, Arnaldo Caprai registered earnings of 5 million euros, of which 40% earned from exports: bottles are sold in 30 different countries around the globe, in particular in the U.S., Japan, Switzerland, Great Britain, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Holland, France, Norway, and Denmark. The estate has 136 hectares of vineyards, with a total production of 750,000 bottles and 9 different preferences. Particularly attentive to the internet and new technologies, Caprai was also one of the first wineries in Italy to sell wine online, and its “Nero Outsider” has obtained enormous commercial success.