RARE GRAPE VARIETAL RESOURCE

Camaiola, an ancient and native Samnite vine, entered the National Register of Vine Varieties a few months ago. It is the first grape variety grown exclusively in the province of Benevento to be included in the official list of Italian vineyards. Cultivated mainly in the Telesino area, for over a century it has been semantically confused with Barbera of Piedmontese origins. A confusion that originated at the beginning of the twentieth century in Castelvenere (Bn); a long history that is intertwined with the emigration to North America of the first producers and with the presence of a Waldensian colony. Camaiola is a term of which there is no trace in the ancient Samnite dialect words. On the contrary, as we read in the writings of the journalist Pasquale Carlo, in several works of French language that have their roots in the Occitan-Provençal language (the official language of the Waldensians), under the heading "camaia" we read: "Noircir, barbouller de noir, tacher. La vìgne se camaia; le raisin commence à tourner", therefore a term that describes a variety capable of staining black, a grape with a high coloring power, used in recent decades to "color" wines. In 2001 some experts pointed out that the variety grown in the Telesina Valley and recognized as "Barbera del Sannio" had nothing to do with the original variety of Piedmont. Numerous studies based on the genetic identification of vine varieties have confirmed that the grape mistakenly called Barbera del Sannio is completely different from Barbera del Monferrato and is also genetically distant from the ampelographic heritage of Campania, thus constituting a unique variety.

The wine is intense red in color with violet reflections. Clear aromas of ripe red fruit and marked floral roses with vegetal notes. Soft, not very tannic. (Courtesy of Torre del Pagus)

Barbera del Sannio is an Italian wine grape varietal, grown in the Campania region of southern Italy.  The grape has no close genetic relationship with the Piedmont wine grapes Barbera or Barbera bianca or the Sardinian wine grape Barbera Sarda.

In Campania, it is often used as a blending variety that adds color and aroma notes to the wine but it is also permitted to be made as a varietal wine in Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) of Sannio.

According to Master of Wine Jancis Robinson, Barbera del Sannio tends to produce medium-bodied wines that are deeply colored and highly aromatic.

(Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

2005 DNA analysis there are genetic relationships to the old Campanian varieties Casavecchia, Catalanesca and Nero di Troia,

Help us populate this website. Whatever verifiable information you could provide re: this varietal or others (story pertaining to the varietal, description, producer, importer etc...) would be appreciated. See Contact page or email please

Aiutateci a popolare questo sito. Ogni informazione verificabile che potrete fornire su queste o altre varietà (storia della varietà, descrizione, produttore, importatore, etc…) sarà molto gradita. Per questo potete indirizzare le informazioni utilizzando la sezione Contatti o l' email.

(Though the number of wineries that cultivate and bottle this varietal as a mono-varietal are few in #, the numbers are slowly increasing - See below)