Church/FarmhouseA couple of months ago, at the beginning of March, the Ministry of Agriculture passed a law change which establishes that all Trebbiano Spoletino wines which are not part of the DOC Spoleto (produced within the area of Spoleto and Montefalco), can no longer be labelled Trebbiano Spoletino but will need to be labelled only Trebbiano.
We believe that this change doesn’t make sense at all because, if anything, Trebbiano Spoletino is a grape and the main “ingredient” we use to make our white wine (a grape we are allowed to grow and which has always been planted all over Umbria – and nobody is even sure about where it came from originally, before arriving in Umbria): why shouldn’t we be allowed to mention Trebbiano Spoletino on the label and advertise that?
We have worked very hard – that is what we do every day – in order to promote Umbria and its specialties – its food and places, not only its wines and grape varieties – and now, as a result, all of a sudden we are forbidden to share the wonderful characteristics of Trebbiano Spoletino with the rest of the world by calling it by its real name.
This amazing variety is an Umbrian gem and part of our history. This grape was saved from extinction in the Sixties and has nothing to do with the Trebbiano family: Trebbiano Spoletino is a different variety altogether and its acidity and aromatic potential are unmistakable. The word Trebbiano alone would then be misleading as it is just a generic name and it only partially relates to Umbria.
A tiny wine region like ours – where each winery should try and work together with the others in order to build a successful brand, called Umbria, and each winemaker should try and promote Umbrian wines to make them more recognisable worldwide – seems to be more and more divided instead, because everybody is just following their personal interests.
We think that tightening the borders of a wine area is not always the best way to promote a terroir and we are sure that many producers – who have strongly contributed to the success of Trebbiano Spoletino and are in the same situation as us – are very disappointed and agree with us.
Mattia Giambattista
Chiesa del Carmine Sommelier