Ugni Blanc

Trebbiano Toscano has been cultivated in Tuscany for centuries. By 1600 Trebbiano, almost certainly this variety, was being named together with a Malvasia as one of the region's most widespread vines. According to tradition, the vine reached France in the fourteenth century, while the popes were resident at Avignon. The oldest French documentation is a 1514 record of the name uniers from Pernes, a town in the Vaucluse, and Ugni seems to come from uni, a Provençal word for an early-ripening grape. The Charente and Charente-Maritime eventually became its main French home, where it displaced Folle Blanche, the grape that had earlier underpinned Cognac, once phylloxera had devastated that variety; before that, growers had taken it up first around Provence and later across the Languedoc.

DNA work has clarified several relationships. In 2005 Bianca di Poviglio, an obscure Emilian white, was shown to be a synonym, and Alionza is closely related. Microsatellite studies from 2007 and 2008 found a probable parent-offspring link with Garganega, itself connected to Malvasia Bianca di Candia, Albana, Catarratto Bianco and several others, which would make Trebbiano Toscano their half-sibling or else their grandparent; which direction the relationship runs is not settled. A parent-offspring link with Passerina is suspected but untested. Although it carries the local name Clairette Ronde in parts of the Rhône, it has no relationship to Clairette.

It has also served as a breeding parent. Folignan, a cross with Folle Blanche, is permitted in small amounts in Cognac, and the hybrid Vidal, widely used for icewine in Canada, descends from it.

Ugni Blanc buds late, which protects it from spring frost, and ripens mid to late season, though growers often pick early to preserve acidity. It is vigorous and high yielding and adapts to many sites and training systems; a trellis suits it best, since the vine shows some mild sensitivity to wind. Downy mildew and eutypa dieback are both threats. Charentais growers value its tolerance of grey rot in a damp Atlantic climate, although Italian catalogues note rot risk where bunches are compact. Italy lists 15 approved clones. In Cognac the rules require at least 2,200 vines per hectare with rows no wider than 3.5 metres, and commercial yields are periodically cut: for 2025 the figure was reduced to 7.65 hectolitres of pure alcohol per hectare to ease a stock surplus.

The most important product is not wine in the glass but base wine for brandy. In Cognac the fruit is fermented without added sugar or sulphur to roughly 7 to 9 percent alcohol, then distilled in legally defined Charentais copper pot stills; Armagnac uses it too, usually in continuous Armagnac stills. Blended with more aromatic varieties such as Colombard, it also yields crisp, inexpensive dry whites in Gascony, notably under Côtes de Gascogne. In central Italy the typical Trebbiano is pale, light-bodied and dry, with lemon, apple and almond notes, and is mostly a blending partner, as in Orvieto. Its other great Italian role is Vin Santo, where grapes are dried, fermented and aged in small barrels to make sweet to off-dry wines. Occasional varietal bottlings from low-yielding old vines, including a few in California, show more body and white currant fruit. It is also a grape source for Aceto Balsamico di Modena.