Grape Guide
Gaglioppo
RedGaglioppo is the leading red grape of Calabria and the backbone of Cirò, grown mostly on the Ionian coast of Crotone province. It gives pale to medium ruby wines with firm tannins, bright acidity, a rose-petal and dried-cherry profile, and a long record of ageing well.
Key Characteristics
- Probable Sangiovese x Mantonico Bianco cross, sibling of Nerello Mascalese
- Vigorous, mid to late ripening, high sugar potential
- Tolerates drought and frost but is prone to downy and powdery mildew
- Does best on clay and siliceous soils, traditionally bush trained
- Pale to medium colour with marked tannin and acidity
Typical Flavors
Major Regions
Cirò (Calabria) · Melissa (Calabria) · Savuto (Calabria) · Donnici (Calabria) · Bivongi (Calabria) · Val di Neto IGT (Calabria) · Lamezia (Calabria)
Also Known As
Arvino Nero · Cirotana (Calabria) · Gaglioppo di Cirò (Calabria) · Galloppo (Calabria) · Morellino Pizzuto (Tuscany) · Navarna (Calabria)
Overview
Gaglioppo is the most widely planted red variety in Calabria, the toe of southern Italy, and the grape by which the region's red wine is best known. Its home territory is the Ionian coastal belt around Cirò and Cirò Marina in the province of Crotone, though it also appears in the reds of the Tyrrhenian side of the region and in small amounts in other parts of the peninsula. The wines are usually moderate in colour, with a ruby tone that can turn brick-orange early. The structure is out of proportion to the pale appearance: tannins are assertive and dry, acidity is fresh, and alcohol is often high. Aromas run to rose petal, sour and dried cherry, pomegranate, orange peel and herbs. Young examples can be austere and rustic, while carefully made bottles from old vines soften with several years in bottle and show leather, tobacco and dried-fruit notes. Gaglioppo is made as a varietal red, a rosato, and a blending partner for local and international varieties.
Origins & History
A wine called "galloppo" appears in the earliest known written record, dated 1240, when the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II ordered 100 barrels of the good stuff shipped to Naples. The name is often traced to a Greek phrase for a good or beautiful foot, said to describe the shape of the bunch, though that etymology is traditional rather than proven. A popular story holds that the variety arrived with Greek colonists in Magna Graecia, but DNA profile comparisons show no genetic link between Gaglioppo and any modern Greek variety, so the claim has no molecular support. DNA work has instead tied Gaglioppo closely to Tuscan and southern Italian families. Early profiling pointed to a parent-offspring relationship with Sangiovese, and later parentage analysis proposed that Gaglioppo is a natural cross of Sangiovese and Mantonico Bianco, a white variety typical of the Locride area of Calabria. Under that parentage, Gaglioppo and the Sicilian variety Nerello Mascalese have the same two parents, which makes them siblings, and Gaglioppo is also a probable sibling of Frappato. The same results place Gaglioppo one generation further down from Calabrese di Montenuovo and Ciliegiolo, the proposed parents of Sangiovese, so it is their grandchild; that pedigree for Sangiovese itself remains a proposal rather than a settled fact. A link to Aleatico has also been suggested but not established. Profiling has also resolved several identity puzzles. Morellino Pizzuto, long treated in Tuscany as a Sangiovese clone, proved to be Gaglioppo under another name, while Gallioppo delle Marche turned out to be a different variety despite the similar name.
Viticultural Characteristics
Gaglioppo is a vigorous vine that crops generously and regularly. It copes well with drought and with cold snaps, which suits the hot, dry summers of southern Calabria, but it is susceptible to both downy and powdery mildew and needs careful canopy and spray management in damp years. It buds and ripens at a mid to late point in the season, and it accumulates sugar easily, so potential alcohol is high and picking date is a key decision: harvested too early the wines are hard and green-edged, too late and they turn heavy. Clay and siliceous soils suit it best. The old vineyards of Cirò are traditionally bush trained (alberello), and clonal selection projects in the region have isolated virus-free Gaglioppo clones.
Wine Styles & Characteristics
Varietal Gaglioppo is typically a dry red of medium body, fresh acidity and firm tannin, with cherry, rose, orange peel and herbal aromas. Producers who macerate briefly, as a few Cirò growers do, tend to get lighter, more perfumed wines; longer maceration and oak give broader, darker, more tannic reds that need time. The Cirò Rosso Classico Superiore Riserva category requires extended ageing, and the new Cirò Classico DOCG sets a minimum of 36 months before release, including six in wood. Gaglioppo also makes a well regarded rosato, often more structured than most Italian pink wines, thanks to the grape's tannic skins and acid backbone. Elsewhere it is blended: with Greco Nero and other local reds in Calabrian DOCs, and with Cabernet Sauvignon in modern IGT wines such as Librandi's Gravello, first made in the late 1980s.