TREBBIANO SPOLETINO TRAVELS ON WHEELS! BETWEEN HISTORY, TASTE AND BIKE
With spring just around the corner, outodoor activities and the desire to discover the territory of Umbria on two wheels are awakening, through routes, landscapes, tasteful and historical experiences that flatly express the fulcrum, the heart of Umbria: its being a region of itineraries between nature, culture and food and wine. It is precisely because of all these elements that make up the glue for discovering and experiencing the Green Heart of Italy, with the season of flowers, pollen, blossoming trees and even the awakening from the long winter warmth of the vineyards, that all the outdoor activities begin and begin, for nature lovers but also for incurable romantics who love to admire new and changing landscapes. A sport that encapsulates all these emotions and sensations is precisely biking!
The Trebbiano Gravel event is a marriage of all these elements, in which Trebbiano Spoletino, the prince, together with Grechetto, of Umbria’s great white wines, becomes the protagonist of an outdoor bike event, Gravel in fact, with routes and itineraries through Umbrian landscapes and above all the vineyards of Spoletino.
A ‘married’ vine
Trebbiano Spoletino is a very old white grape variety that is making a splendid comeback both in its production and valorisation but also in its communication and promotion abroad.
In ancient times, the vines were grown in the alberata system, i.e. joined, ‘maritate’, to elm and maple trees, so that they developed as climbing plants and were also less susceptible to insect and animal predators, as well as being a solution for soil moisture during the cold hours of the day. A fascinating as well as archaic system of agriculture in which several crops were present in promiscuity, but also a method of optimising soil and space for planting trees and plants.
With mechanisation, agricultural technology, machinery and modernity, today there are almost no vines left of Trebbiano Spoletino, leaving room for extensive cultivation that, at the same time, creates fascinating landscapes of rows and bunches of grapes.
Trebbiano Spoletino is an autochthonous late-harvest vine that nevertheless tends to preserve a high acidity, making it versatile in its multifaceted versions: still, sparkling, sweet, passito, vinsanto, long maceration on the skins and ageing in wood.
A name, a grape variety, a wine
In Italy, there are various types of ‘Trebbiano’ vines that very often have no kinship, let’s say genetic.
Suffice it to think of Trebbiano Toscano, Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Trebbiano Romagnolo, Trebbiano Modenese, Trebbiano Giallo, Trebbiano di Soave… And yet there are ‘Trebbiani’ outside the Italian borders, such as in Bulgaria or South Africa.
For this reason, a solution proposed by the Consortia could be to recognise it under the name of Spoletino, untying it from Trebbiano and making it stand out for its elegant organoleptic characteristics.
The ‘Dwellings’ of Trebbiano
While the vine variety was entered in the National Register of Vine Varieties (No. 243) in 1970, its recognition as DOC, Denominazione di Origine Controllata, dates back to 30 November 2011.
The Spoleto DOC covers an area of approximately 24,000 hectares between 200 and 600 metres above sea level and today includes parts of the municipalities of Spoleto, Montefalco, Castel Ritaldi, Foligno, Campello sul Clitunno and Trevi, and includes, for example, municipalities where Trebbiano wine can be made, such as Giano dell’Umbria.
