Ortrugo

Ortrugo is the white grape of the Colli Piacentini, and its name is an insult that stuck. It was originally Altruga, from altro, meaning simply the other grape, the one of no importance that went into the blend alongside whatever mattered. It spent centuries in that role, and owes its existence as a wine in its own right to one grower’s curiosity in the early 1970s.

Origins and history The modern name was first used by Toni in 1927, who described Ortrugo as one of the best white varieties in the province of Piacenza, a striking promotion for a grape whose name meant the other one. As D’Agata puts it, this is a case of one century’s dog being another century’s star, and it says a good deal about what Italy’s native varieties have had to put up with over the years.

The man who saved it Luigi Mossi is generally called the father of Ortrugo, a title he waves away. In the early 1970s the Colli Piacentini made and drank Malvasia, and nobody knew what Ortrugo tasted like because everyone blended it away. Mossi had a small parcel of Ortrugo in an awkward spot that had survived largely on its own, and before uprooting it he made a wine from it out of curiosity. The result surprised everyone, and he began selecting and propagating the best vines.

A well-timed accident Mossi’s instinct proved commercially sharp. Malvasia sales collapsed in the 1980s and producers went looking for an alternative; many chose Chardonnay and Pinot Bianco, which D’Agata considers a clear mistake, while Mossi stayed with Ortrugo because he thought it mattered to offer a wine made locally from a locally important grape. The University of Piacenza then became involved, and new Ortrugo vineyards went in beside the old massal-selection plantings.

In the vineyard Ortrugo has large cylindrical-conical compact bunches and medium round berries, with vigorous growth and abundant, regular production. It does far better on poorly fertile hillside soils, where its natural vigour is checked, and struggles where magnesium is deficient. It is prone to desiccation of the bunch stem and susceptible to the European grapevine moth. Three clones are available: PC ORT 80, PC ORT 81 and VCR 245.

A telling variability Chiara Azzali of Tenuta Pernice, among the best producers of the wine, first planted Ortrugo in 1980 and again in 1989, 2002 and 2005. What she finds most interesting is the grape’s intravarietal variability: the 1980 vines from massal selection all look quite different from one another, while the clonal material planted in 2005 is uniform. That old diversity is part of what the massal-selected parcels still offer.

Appearance and structure Nobody should approach Ortrugo expecting intensity. The wines are light, and the honest assessment is that they are rarely complex, but they are always fresh, clean and crisp, and for easy drinking on a hot day they are hard to beat. It is a wine with a clear idea of what it is, which is more than can be said for much of what replaced it.

Aromatic profile Lemon and green apple lead, with a delicately herbal edge and a mineral finish; the better examples add apricot kernel and white peach. The sparkling versions sit somewhere near a good Prosecco but are usually less fruity and more mineral. The still wines carry the herbal character more clearly.

In the cellar The best pure examples come from the Colli Piacentini Ortrugo DOC. Several IGT wines may be up to 100 per cent Ortrugo, including Bianco di Castelfranco Emilia, dell’Emilia, Forlì, Ravenna and Rubicone, and the grape also plays a small part in the Vin Santo di Vigoleno blend. Still, frizzante and fully sparkling versions are all made, and the frizzante is the most characteristic.

Key expressions

• Colli Piacentini Ortrugo DOC, the benchmark for varietal bottlings.
• Frizzante versions, the style most often drunk locally.
• Sparkling Ortrugo, leaner and more mineral than Prosecco.
• Wines from old massal-selection parcels, where the variability shows.

The question of aging Ortrugo has no ambitions here and should not be given any. It is at its best in the year after the vintage, while the lemon and green apple are bright and the finish clean, and it tires noticeably after two. The sparkling versions are marginally more durable but follow the same rule.

At the table It was made for the salumi of Piacenza, and coppa, pancetta and culatello are its natural companions, the acidity cutting the fat and the frizzante versions scrubbing the palate. It also suits fried vegetables, young cheeses and simple freshwater fish. Serve it cold, around eight degrees.

Why it matters Ortrugo is the answer to a question the 1980s got wrong across Italy: when a traditional wine falls out of favour, do you plant Chardonnay or do you look harder at what you already have. Piacenza looked harder, and kept a wine that belongs to its own hills rather than to everyone’s. It is not a great white, and it does not need to be.