RARE GRAPE VARIETAL RESOURCE

History: Foglia Tonda is an Italian red wine grape with a precarious past. Twice forgotten and twice revived, it is now being lifted from oblivion by a number of enterprising winemakers in central Tuscany.

The rather elegant (and deceptively simple) name Foglia Tonda means simply "round leaf". But it is not the variety’s viticultural characteristics that make it of interest to the wine world, rather its qualities in the winery. Foglia Tonda grapes are valued for their deep pigmentation and the color boost they bring to wines. This makes it a particularly useful complement to Sangiovese, Tuscany’s most widely planted wine grape, which – for all its merits – definitely lacks depth of color. This color-adding role is also commonly performed by Colorino, a minor component in the most famous of all Sangiovese-based wines, Chianti.

Foglia Tonda is an extremely ancient red grape variety from Tuscany, once widespread in the Chianti and Val di Chiana countryside. Its origins date back at least to the Middle Ages, when it appears in the land registers and agricultural documents of the Grand Ducal farms as a complementary grape to Sangiovese.

For centuries the Foglia Tonda variety remained in obscurity, but was rediscovered in the 1870s by Giuseppe Conti de Rovasenda, one of Italy’s famous early ampelographers. Rovasenda took cuttings from the vineyards of Castello di Brolio, a vineyard owned by Barone Ricasoli.

However, the grape suffered a dramatic decline after the phylloxera crisis and with the progressive standardization of Tuscan viticulture. It was finally admitted to Italy's National Catalogue of Vine Varieties in May, 1970, but this did little to stimulate interest in Foglia Tonda as a variety, surviving only in a few scattered rows. Its revival, which began in the 1990s thanks to genetic studies and the rediscovery of minor native varieties, has brought attention back to a grape variety now considered one of the most fascinating "discoveries" of the Tuscan tradition. Today, it is grown primarily in Tuscany, in the provinces of Siena, Arezzo and Florence.

It is interesting to know that it was considered a variety in its own right until DNA analysis was made available, which revealed to be Foglia Tonda a hybridization (presumably occurred naturally) between a variety of vines still unknown and Sangiovese, for centuries widespread in Chianti vineyards.

The berries have very thick skin rich in anthocyanins and an intense blue-black color. It displays remarkable resistance to drought and good tolerance to the main fungal diseases, thanks to its tough skin and balanced vegetative characteristics.

Vinification involves medium-long macerations to enhance color and structure, while aging can take place in stainless steel or large wooden barrels or barriques, depending on the desired style.

(Source: https://www.wine-searcher.com/...) &(Courtesy of: https://www.quattrocalici.it/)