Ciliegiolo: general information

general information managed by Dipartimento di Scienze Agrarie, Alimentari e Agro-ambientali (DiSAAA-a) - Università di Pisa
How to cite this source Scalabrelli G., D'Onofrio C., 2013. Ciliegiolo. In: Italian Vitis Database. www.vitisdb.it ISSN 2282-0062010
botanical information
name
Ciliegiolo
type of origin
spontanea
specie
Vitis vinifera
variety group
not available
genera
Vitis
subspecie
sativa
variety for
wine
code
IVD-var_6
registration
Registered in the National Catalogue
yes
code
62
Official name
CILIEGIOLO N.
synonyms
official synonyms (1)
synonyms reported in the National Catalogue
  • Morettone
documented synonyms (3)
synonyms documented by the Istitution that appear with the eventual support of the literature
released clones (5)
images
  • shoot
    shoot
  • shootTipUs
    shootTipUs
  • shootTipLs
    shootTipLs
  • bud
    bud
  • leaf
    leaf
  • leafUs
    leafUs
  • leafLs
    leafLs
  • petiol sinus
    petiol sinus
  • bunch
    bunch
  • berry
    berry
  • seed
    seed
Historical references

Recent molecular studies have shown that this variety has a direct relationship (parent-child type) with Sangiovese and Moscato violetto (Vouillamoz et al., 2001, 2004; Di Vecchi et al., 2007; Cipriani et al., 2010).

Soderini (1590) describes the 'Ciregiuolo dolce' as follows: it is a variety with long and loose bunches, with a bigger and hairier berry than any other sort of grapes, its taste  is sweet and fragrant; it  is good in hot countries and lands. Breviglieri and Casini (1964) said that it was not easy to prove the correspondence to Ciliegiolo on the base of this description of cultivars such as Salvadori had instead argued. Micheli (1679) described a 'Ciliegiona rossa tonda di Spagna' but that, however, has berries ’beautiful red’ and another ’Ciliegiona tonda di Spagna‘ with different shape of  berries, which does not appear to correspond to the variety of grape currently known. In the absence of precise references , its existence in Italy and particularly in Tuscany, has been dated back to around 1870. According to Racah (1932) it would have been brought by pilgrims coming back from St. James of Compostela’s sanctuary. This hypothesis hasn’t found confirmation in Bruni researches (1947) .
The variety was described by Marzotto (1925), De Astis (1937), Dalmasso (1946) and more in detail by Cosmo (1948) in an ampelographic comparative study with other varieties of grapes such as ‘Montepulciano’ ‘Canaiolo’ and ‘Sangiovese’, as it was often indicated as a ‘Sangiovese’.
The most complete description is that by Breviglieri and Casini (1964).

distribution & variation

Diffusion

In Tuscany it is particularly cultivated in Maremma; it is also cultivated in Liguria, Emilia-Romagna, Marche, Lazio, Umbria, Abruzzo, Molise, Basilicata, Sicilia. The cultivated area has considerably decreased since 1982 changing from over 6000 hectares to the current 1600, of which 327 can be found in Tuscany.

 

Italy

Area (ha)

 

 

1970

3.537

 

 

1982

6.034

 

 

1990

5.636

 

 

2000

3.076

 

 

2010

1.601

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tuscany

DOC/DOCG

Other wines

Total

1982

1.426

1.400

2.826

1990

 

 

1.407

2000

102

666

768

2008

 

 

327

 

 

Agronomic characteristics

Budbreak time is later than Sangiovese, and it has a lower fertility of basal buds, making it less suitable for short pruning. This variety shows high vigour, bunches of medium or large size, and big berries which are often dense. It can be cultivate in several environments, however, gives the best products in hilly and not too fertile soils, in temperate-warm and dry climate, where it can get an optimal vegetative-productive equilibrium. The variety is intermediately sensitive to downy mildew and acid rot, particularly it is affected by the attacks of gray mold and wind. It tolerates fairly powdery mildew, esca disease and the drought. In the past it was frequently cultivated together with Sangiovese and this was a limitation because Ciliegiolo’s veraison and ripening times are earlier than Sangiovese’s ones.

technological use

It is exclusively used for winemaking. In the past, for his precocity, was locally used for direct consumption. Sometimes it may be lacking in acidity, as it is normally harvested at advanced ripening stage because shows a delay of seed phenolic maturity that oblige to a late harvest. For these characteristics it is well suited to the blend with other wines. In purity can provide wines of good quality with excellent performance to the aging.
In previous descriptions Ciliegiolo was designed as variety with poor polyphenol content. The results of our analysis indicate, however, a good phenol content often higher than Sangiovese, combined with a good anthocyanin richness also characterized by high presence of malvidina, which increases the colour stability. When it is cultivated in not very fertile soil, and if it is properly regulated in the production, provides very structured wines, especially in several  places of Maremma, hilly of Pisa and Siena, where a small number of farms having specific environmental conditions are able to produce young wines and good aging wines. The grapes is used successfully to make the wine  ‘Novello Tuscano’ and for the production of DOP and IGP  wines like ‘Colli Lucchesi’, ‘Colli di Luni’, ‘Morellino di Scansano’, ‘Montecucco’, ‘Monteregio di Massa Marittima’, ‘Maremma’,  ‘Parrina’, ‘Toscana’, ‘Sovana’ and ‘Golfo del Tigullio’.

 

bibliographies (12)
authors year title journal citation
Breviglieri N., Casini E. 1963 Ciliegiolo Ministero dell'Agricoltura e delle Foreste - Principali vitigni da vino coltivati in Italia - Volume II
Bruni B. 1947 Il problema ampelografico ed il caso del Ciliegiuolo. L’Italia Agricola (2)
Cipriani G., Spadotto A., Jurman I., Di Gaspero G., Crespan M., Meneghetti S., Frare E., Vignani R., Cresti M., Morgante M., Pezzotti M., Pe E., Policriti A., Testolin R. 2010 The SSR-based molecular profile of 1005 grapevine (Vitis vinifera L.) accessions uncovers new synonymy and parentages, and reveals a large admixture amongst varieties of different geographic origin TAG Theoretical and Applied Genetics 121:1569-1585
Cosmo I. 1948 Indagine ampelografica comparativa Rivista di Viticoltura e di Enologia n. 4, Aprile - Conegliano
Dalmasso G. 1946 Uve da vino - Vitigni rossi Roma
De Astis, G. 1937 Rassegna e revisione dei vitigni coltivati in Toscana. Progresso Vinicolo di Firenze, XV. Firenze
Di Vecchi-Staraz M., Bandinelli R., Boselli M., Patrice T., Boursiquot J.M., Laucou V., Lacombe T. 2007 Genetic Structuring and Parentage Analysis for Evolutionary Studies in Grapevine: Kin Group and Origin of the Cultivar Sangiovese Revealed Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 132(4): 514–524
Marzotto N. 1925 Uve da vino voll. I-II, Tipografia Commerciale, Vicenza.
Micheli P. A. 1679 Manoscritti 1679-1737 - Enumeratio quarundam plantarum sibi per Italiam et Germaniam observatorum in acta Turnefortii metodum dispositarum. Tom. VIII, M.S., s.d., (b). (Inv. Istituto di Botanica 2646).
Racah V. 1914 Il Ciliegiuolo L'Italia Agricola, N. 9 - Roma
Soderini G. V. 1590 Trattato della coltivazione delle viti e del frutto che se ne può cavare Edizione del 1622, Giunti Ed. Firenze.
Vouillamoz J.F. , Monaco A., Costantini I., Stefanini M., Scienza A., Grando S. 2007 The parentage of 'Sangiovese', the most important Italian wine grape Vitis 46 (1), 19–22
updated at 2016-11-01 13:14:49 (7 years ago)