Quagliano

Quagliano is the only Italian wine grape listed under the letter Q in the National Registry, which is very nearly the most famous thing about it. It makes a pale, sweet, low-alcohol red in a small corner of the province of Cuneo, not far from where Barolo and Barbaresco are made and about as far from them in style as it is possible to get.

Origins and history Quagliano was first cited in 1721 in the agricultural documents of the town of Busca, and again in 1749 in those of Costigliole Saluzzo, and was probably already in place in the 1600s under the name Negro Dolce. Some researchers identify it with the ancient wine aglieucos, though there is no definitive proof. Molon gave the first accurate description in 1906 and believed it capable of delicious wines.

More than a wine grape Quagliano was long prized as a table grape and fetched considerably higher prices than other grapes of the area. The local nobility also believed in Quagliano grape therapy, centuries before antioxidant creams and grape-skin massages. There is a basis for it of sorts: the variety’s low sodium concentration gives it diuretic qualities, which is not the first thing a producer of fine wine wants to be known for.

An unexpected relation Recent DNA results suggest Quagliano is a possible parent of Impigno, a variety typical of Puglia. D’Agata finds this hard to understand, since the two have never been associated in the literature and neither has been described in the other’s region. It is the kind of result that either rewrites a grape’s history or turns out to be a sampling error, and at present nobody can say which.

In the vineyard The vine is attractive, with large pyramidal bunches and large round berries of a pale blue-red. It is fairly hardy in general, with good vigour, abundant productivity and reasonable disease resistance. Its one serious weakness is the extremely thin skin: any rain during harvest splits the berries open and botrytis follows immediately. The origin of the name is unknown, though it may derive from caià, curdled, referring to how the wine was once made.

Where it grows Quagliano is native to the Saluzzese area of Piedmont in the province of Cuneo, and grows around the towns of Pagno, Piasco, Busca, Brondello, Costigliole Saluzzo, Saluzzo and Verzuolo. That is the whole of it. The zone is small enough that a single bad harvest affects essentially all the wine made.

Appearance and structure The wine is pink-hued and light-bodied, and carries considerable tannin that coats the palate, which is an unusual combination in something this pale and sweet. Alcohol is deliberately low, with a minimum of 10 per cent for the still version and 11 for the sparkling. Ripeness is everything: underripe fruit gives a green, unconvincing wine.

Aromatic profile Strawberry dominates, fresh and direct, with the sweetness carrying rather than masking it. There is none of the dried-fruit or spirity character of heavier sweet reds. The overall effect is delicate and immediate, closer to a sweet rosato in feel than to a dessert wine.

In the cellar The wine is Colline Saluzzesi Quagliano DOC, made still and sparkling, and the sparkling version is the one most often encountered. A local festival celebrates it each year, which in a zone this small is a meaningful part of how the variety survives at all. Winemaking is straightforward; the challenge is entirely in the vineyard and the weather at harvest.

Key expressions

• Colline Saluzzesi Quagliano DOC, sparkling, the most common style.
• The still sweet version, at a minimum 10 per cent alcohol.
• Wines from Costigliole Saluzzo and Busca, where the documentary record begins.
• Table-grape plantings, the variety’s other historic use.

The question of aging Quagliano is made to be drunk young and there is no argument otherwise. The strawberry fruit that defines it is gone within two years, and the low alcohol offers no protection. The sparkling version in particular should be drunk in the year following the vintage.

At the table It belongs with Piedmontese biscuits and simple fruit desserts, and the tannic grip lets it handle richer pastries than its weight suggests. It is also drunk as an aperitivo locally, which the low alcohol makes entirely reasonable. Serve it cold, around ten to twelve degrees.

Why it matters Quagliano is a sweet, pale, low-alcohol red made in seven small towns by a handful of people, and it has been made there for at least three hundred years. It is not a great wine and has never pretended to be. What it demonstrates is that Piedmont is not only Nebbiolo, and that the region’s margins hold traditions the famous zones never had.