As the French senator Victor Hugo once said, “The horizon is the line that underscores infinity,” and on the horizon of the infinite varietal ampelography of indigenous Italian vines, there is also the ‘Ruzzese,’ an ancient and extremely rare white grape variety from Liguria. On the high hills of the province of La Spezia, overlooking another horizon—the Ligurian Sea—this variety continues to live on, with only 1,500 vines remaining.
Yes, only 1,500 vines! These young vines symbolize the present and future of this centuries-old grape variety.
The Ruzzese, deriving from the dialectal term ‘Ruzzese,’ ‘Racese,’ or ‘Razzese,’ has an ancient history. It developed from the 6th century A.D. on the Ligurian coast, particularly in the Cinque Terre and Levante Ligure areas. It was cultivated and produced exclusively as a sweet wine, quickly becoming prevalent in the properties of Ligurian growers. It soon reached the Roman market and gained attention in the most prestigious places, eventually making its way to the highly coveted papal table at the Vatican.
History tells us that this wine even captured the heart of Pope Paul III Farnese, who reigned from 1534 to 1549. He was advised by his butler (the sommelier of the time), Sante Lancerio, who considered the Ruzzese one of the best wines in Italy at the time.
This indigenous variety enjoyed great splendor in the four centuries that followed, with the wine even being used as a “sweetening” condiment in soups at the Vatican. However, in the early 1900s, as happened to most European non-grafted vines, the advent of phylloxera led to the extinction of the Ruzzese.
The variety disappeared for a long period until the early 2000s. In 2007, the Liguria Region, with the involvement of the National Research Council of Turin and the National Institute for Sustainable Viticulture, initiated a research project on Liguria’s historical indigenous grape varieties, thanks to the technical contributions of Prof. Mannini and Prof. Schneider. During their research, they came across a mysterious mother plant in the municipality of Arcola, which genetic studies confirmed to be the Ruzzese.
Despite the researchers’ discovery, the variety remained unused until 2015, when Davide Zoppi and Giuseppe Luciano Aieta, both owners of the ‘Cà du Ferrà’ winery, attended a conference on Ligurian indigenous grape varieties. After discovering the history of this variety, they decided to replant some of the vines in their estate in Bonassola, on the gentle hills overlooking the Ligurian Gulf in the Province of La Spezia. Initially, they replanted 77 vines, eventually reaching (those!) 1,500 within five years, with a full-sun, south-facing planting to encourage the over-ripening of the grapes. After a few years, in 2020, they were finally able to resume the vinification of this important enological excellence in Liguria after more than a century of cessation.
Today, the two entrepreneurs produce 500 bottles strictly in the passito version, fully respecting the tradition and history of this variety, with a label named ‘diciassettemaggio.’
This achievement earned them and their winery the “Ethical Winemaker” award at Vinitaly 2022, in recognition of their dedication to rediscovering and enhancing the Ruzzese, as well as their intention to invest further efforts in reviving other ancient indigenous Ligurian varieties.
Thanks to the work of Davide and Giuseppe, in December 2022, the “Slow Food Community for the Protection and Enhancement of Ruzzese from Levante Ligure” was established in Bonassola, thus bringing the Ruzzese into the renowned Slow Food network.
In its morphological characteristics, this grape variety has an open bud with abundant tomentum and pinkish edges. The herbaceous shoot has a fully reddish dorsal side and is streaked with red on the ventral side. The leaf is orbicular or cuneiform in shape, and the cluster is composed of medium-small, ellipsoidal berries forming medium-sized, elongated cylindrical clusters, often with one or two wings.
