Grape Guide
Durella
WhiteDurella is a white variety indigenous to the Monti Lessini, a belt of hills where the Veneto's Verona and Vicenza territories meet. Thick skins and remarkably high natural acidity suit it to the basalt-rich soils found at altitude there. Almost the entire crop becomes dry sparkling wine, made either by the traditional method or in tank, and the Lessini Durello and Monti Lessini denominations are where it belongs.
Key characteristics
- Native to the Monti Lessini on the Verona and Vicenza border; first recorded in 1825
- Name is thought to derive from the thick, tough berry skin
- Vigorous, late ripening, with very high natural acidity and abundant polyphenols
- Traditionally trained on the Veronese pergola; best on high-altitude basalt and volcanic tuff slopes
- Probable parent of Bianchetta Trevigiana; a distinct variety from Nosiola despite long confusion
Typical flavors
Major regions
Lessini Durello DOC (Veneto) · Monti Lessini DOC (Veneto) · Roncà (Verona) · Montebello Vicentino (Vicenza) · Lombardy (minor plantings)
Also known as
Durello (Veneto) · Durella Bianca · Durella Gentile (Liguria · Tuscany) · Cagnina (Vicenza) · Caina · Rabiosa (Treviso) · Duracino
Durella is the defining grape of the Lessini hills, a basalt-capped limestone range lying north of Soave and straddling Verona and Vicenza provinces. Its berries have a thick skin and unusually high acidity, which made the still wines hard to drink young and led growers to treat it as a local curiosity for generations. That same acidity, together with firm phenolic structure, is now its commercial strength: the grape gives sparkling base wines that stay taut through long contact with the lees and age slowly.
In the glass the wines are dry, pale straw and linear, with citrus, green orchard fruit and a saline, stony edge. Tank-method versions are fresh and fragrant, while bottle-fermented wines gain almond, bread crust and smoke with time on the lees. Quantities are small, roughly a million bottles a year across the whole denomination, and a few dozen producers account for most of it, so the grape remains a specialist's wine rather than a volume category.
The home of Durella is the Monti Lessini, pre-Alpine hills that sit between Verona and Vicenza provinces. The earliest firm record dates to 1825, when the grape was listed among the vines of the Vicenza district and of Lombardy's Oltrepò Pavese. Its name is generally tied to the hardness of the berry skin (from the Italian duro, hard). A local theory holds that it descends from the Duracina grape known from Roman texts, and that a vine called Durasena, noted in the Colli Berici in 1292, might be the same plant, but neither link has genetic or documentary proof.
For a long time Durella was mistaken for Nosiola of Trentino, another thick-skinned white of the pre-Alpine belt. Ampelographic comparison and DNA profiling have shown the two to be unrelated. Durella's own parentage is unknown. It is, however, a parent: microsatellite work published in 2010 identified it as a likely parent of Bianchetta Trevigiana, an old Treviso white, and the same study suggested the obsolete red Brambana as the other parent. Several unrelated vines carry the name Durella or Durello elsewhere in Italy, among them a Tuscan and Ligurian form called Durella Gentile, so the name alone should not be taken as proof of identity with the Lessini grape.
Durella is vigorous and ripens late, usually well into October at the altitudes where it is grown. The thick skin gives good resistance to rot and to wet autumn weather, and the berries retain very high acidity even in warm years, which is the reason the grape suits sparkling base wine and is rarely harvested for ripeness. It is traditionally trained on the Veronese pergola, which spreads the vigorous canopy and keeps fruit off the ground, although guyot-trained vineyards have become more common. The best sites sit on higher slopes on dark basaltic and volcanic tuff soils, where drainage is good and cool nights preserve aromatics. Yields need active control, since the vine is capable of heavy crops.
Almost all Durella is made into dry sparkling wine. The Charmat or tank method gives clean, citrus-driven wines for early drinking, usually brut. The traditional method is the more ambitious route: bottle-fermented wines spend extended time on the lees, often several years for Riserva labels, and develop brioche, toasted almond and a distinctive smoky, saline finish while keeping their tension. Producers commonly make non-dosage or very low-dosage versions, since the acidity needs little sugar for balance. Neither DOC has a rosé category. Durello wines must contain at least 85% Durella, with Chardonnay, Garganega, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero allowed to fill the rest. Still dry wines exist but are a small niche, and at least one producer makes a sweet passito from dried Durella berries.
Where it grows
Lessini Durello DOC
The core denomination, spread over about two dozen communes in Verona and Vicenza provinces on hillside sites. In recent years the rules have been divided by method, with tank-fermented wines labelled Lessini Durello.
Monti Lessini DOC
The denomination now used for bottle-fermented, traditional-method wines, with the same 85% minimum of Durella and the same permitted partners. Only a minority of the zone's production is made this way, but it carries most of the area's quality reputation.
Roncà
A Verona commune on the volcanic eastern slopes and home to Fongaro, which makes only traditional-method Durella, and to Marcato, whose range includes sparkling wines blended with Pinot Nero or Chardonnay and a passito.
Montebello Vicentino
Base of Casa Cecchin, founded in 1978, and credited with making the first traditional-method sparkling wine from Durella in 1989. The Vicenza side of the zone also includes producers in the Gambellara area such as Dal Maso.
Lombardy and elsewhere
Small plantings turn up in Lombardy, where the grape was recorded in the nineteenth century, and the name Durella Gentile is used for different local vines in Liguria and Tuscany. Total Italian plantings were around 720 hectares around the year 2000.