I mentioned that I tasted the San Colombano grape when I tried this 1997 Vinsanto at this ad hoc tasting of Vin Santo di Toscana at last year's Wine Fair. Looking it up in Wikipedia to identify the name by which this grape is most commonly known internationally yielded the entry on Verdea, which is the prime name given in VIVC. As I had also just had a new grape called Verdeca, I double checked to make sure one is not just a misspelling of the other. No, indeed they are two different grapes from 2 distinct localities, Verdea originated in Tuscany but is now grown mainly in Lombardy. Verdeca on the other hand is from Emilia-Romagna and Apulia.
Back to Verdea, its history can be traced back to a mention in a 1303 of Tuscan viticulture and had been used in Vinsanto production traditionally. The largest area of cultivation is now around the village of San Colombano al Lambro in Lombardy, explaining the synonym used by the vignerons which produced the Vinsanto I tried. This mid-ripening grape has good resistance to botrytis, allowing it to hang on the vines late into the growing season, explaining its use in passito wine production.
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