Native says who?

Are we sure we are using the right adjective in regard to native varietals?

Over the course of Italian wine history, we have shifted from exalting international or French varietals in the 1990s to rediscovering native varietals in the 2000s and this trend happily continues today. But one needs to ask whether the adjective native is correct, in the true sense of the word: born in a particular zone from domesticating wild vines.

If we were to ask a wine consumer, perhaps even an expert one, what they considered a native varietal to be, they would undoubtedly say it was a varietal originating in the same area where it evolved, as opposed to a non-native one that was introduced to a certain area but originated in another.

However, one need only turn to a conference-lesson by Professor Attilio Scienza – an authentic authority on vine genetics – to realize that, based on the most recent studies on vine DNA, which have allowed for a reconstruction of the history and “appearance” of various varietals in particular locations, the adjective native is incorrectly applied in regard to most Italian varietals.

For example, Sangiovese is not, as we may all assume, a varietal native to Tuscany or Romagna and, in any case, did not originate in central Italy but rather Calabria. And there are many other examples of grapes that evolved best in regions other than those of their origin.

Should we thus adopt a semantic change to the adjective native when it refers to a varietal and consider it not a reference to its origin but to the territory where it evolved the best? In other words, a varietal should be native to the area which has proved to be the most suited for it and thus allowed it to best develop its characteristics? This would appear to be the case, if we want to consider Sangiovese to be native to Tuscany and not Calabria, to return to the example cited above.

But then again who knows whether, with the climate change taking place, certain varietals will continue to produce the best results in the area they consider to be their original home, but in reality is not?