The description and evaluation of grapevine land races in Oltrepò Pavese, Northern Italy

Abstract

Most grapevine land races which were extensively grown in the last century in Oltrepò Pavese, Northern Italy, can today only be found in marginal old vineyards close to abandonment or eradication. Germplasm collected following an initial survey in 1986 was described during 1990–91 according to a basic list of morphological traits. Between 1990 and 1993, yield and must composition traits were measured for vines in the collection. In 1991, grapes from 15 representative Oltrepò land races were micro‐vinified. Chemical and sensory analyses of wines were performed. Many local biotypes of each old cultivar were discovered in a second survey in Oltrepò carried out in 1990 and 1991, confirming that the most important land races described in the literature were not properly cultivars but rather variety populations, because of their large intra‐population variability. To avoid genetic drift, it will therefore be necessary to reproduce this variability in germplasm collections. Anthocyanin high‐pressure liquid chromatography profiles were successfully adopted to classify the land races into groups and for the purposes of variety identification. It was concluded that only a few of these land races may be proposed to growers as an alternative to traditionally grown cultivars, to increase the typicity of wines produced in the district.