Todi DOC

The hills around Todi, on the Tiber south of Perugia, and the denomination that exists to make the case for one clone of one grape. Todi is Grechetto country, and its file is the only one in the register that argues the point in laboratory terms.

The Terroir The registered file describes hillside cultivation at altitudes varying from 250 to 600 metres, on soils usually of medium texture tending to clayey, well endowed with calcium carbonates and organic matter. Then it adds a note almost no other document in the corpus contains: from a climatic point of view, the last decade has recorded an average increase in winter precipitation. A legal file registering observed climate change is worth pausing on.

G5 and G109 This is the interesting part. The file states that the name Grechetto would seem to link the origin of this grape unequivocally with Greece, and then distinguishes two clones by their laboratory codes: G5, it says, is capable of showing a sensory profile characterised by a greater floral and fruity component than can be obtained under the same soil, climatic and technical conditions from G109. That distinction is real and larger than the word “clone” suggests — ampelographic work has established that Grechetto di Todi and Grechetto di Orvieto are separate varieties, and that the Todi one is identical to Emilia’s Pignoletto.

Grape Varieties Grechetto, which the file says the whites are centred on, with a long permitted supporting list. Merlot and Sangiovese carry the reds. The Grechetto is made still, and the better examples are increasingly given lees ageing or a little skin contact.

The Critical Take Grechetto has spent its career as the junior partner in Orvieto blends, and Todi is where it is finally being taken seriously on its own. The G5 wines are the reason: fuller and more floral than Umbrian white usually is, with pear, hay and a bitter-almond close, and enough structure to age five years — qualities that make sense once you know the grape is Pignoletto, which does the same thing in Emilia. The denomination is small and young, and prices have not caught up with quality.

Todi The town is one of the best-preserved hill towns in Umbria, Etruscan then Roman then medieval, with three concentric rings of walls from each era and Bramante’s pupil’s domed church of Santa Maria della Consolazione below it. The vineyards run down from its walls toward the Tiber.

At the Table Umbrian cooking: strangozzi, freshwater fish from the Tiber, roast pork, chickpeas and farro, and young pecorino. Serve at 10–12°C, warmer for an aged bottle.

Benchmark Producers Roccafiore, Cantina Peppucci, and the Tudernum cooperative.