Marzemina bianca

Did You Know?

• Marzemina bianca is a mid-ripening variety often allowed to hang on the vine long after sugars have fully accumulated to make sweet late-harvest wines.
• After harvest, grapes are laid out on straw mats or hung in well-ventilated drying rooms to produce passito wines.
• One producer in the Veneto makes a lightly sparkling frizzante version under the synonym Sampagne, classified as a vino da tavola.

History

For a long time, no one knew where Marzemina bianca came from. The first written record of the grape dates to 1679, when Italian writer Giacomo Agostinetti noted it growing near Breganze in the Veneto region. Earlier grape experts guessed it might have come from Burgundy, traveling through Germany and Switzerland to Italy. But DNA testing in 2008 revealed a parent-child link with the Trentino grape Marzemino, which was already documented in the Veneto by 1553. Further genetic work pointed to Garganega, the Soave grape, as the likely other parent.

Wine regions

Marzemina bianca was once widely planted throughout the Veneto but its numbers declined after the phylloxera epidemic in the late 19th century. In 2000, 83 hectares were reported in Italy, mostly in the Padova, Vicenza and Treviso provinces. It is a permitted variety in the Breganze DOC, where it is blended with Vespaiola in late-harvest Torcolato wines, and in the Colli di Conegliano DOC, where it is used in passito wines blended with Glera, Verdiso and Verdicchio.

Relationship and confusion with other grapes

DNA evidence has shown that Marzemina bianca likely crossed with the Veneto grape Raboso Piave to produce Raboso Veronese. The grape has synonyms such as Champagne and Champagna that suggest a relationship to the French wine region or its sparkling wine grapes, but DNA evidence has shown no such relationship or historical connection. Marzemina bianca is sometimes confused with Chasselas, which originated in Switzerland and has Marzemina bianca as a synonym, but no evidence indicates a relationship between the two varieties.