Grape Variety: Ugni Blanc

Colour: White

Trebbiano is a grape variety that makes more white wine in the world than any other (except possibly Airen). It gives good yields, but makes undistinguished wine at best. It can be fresh and fruity, but doesn’t keep long. Its high acidity makes it important in cognac production. Also known as Ugni Blanc, it has many other names reflecting a family of local subtypes, particularly in Italy and France.

‘Ugni Blanc’ is the most widely planted white grape of France, being found particularly along the Provençal coast, in the Gironde and Charente. It is also known as ‘Clairette Ronde’, ‘Clairette de Vence’, ‘Queue de Renard’, and in Corsica as ‘Rossola’. Most of the table wine is unremarkable and often blended or turned into industrial alcohol.

Under the name ‘St. Émilion’, Trebbiano is important in brandy production, being the most common grape variety of the Cognac and Armagnac. In the Armagnac / Côtes de Gascogne area it is also used in the white Floc de Gascogne.

The Trebbiano family account for around a third of all white wine in Italy. It is mentioned in over 80 of Italy’s DOCs, although it has just six of its own: Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, Trebbiano di Aprilia, Trebbiano di Arborea, Trebbiano di Capriano del Colle, Trebbiano di Romagna and Trebbiano Val Trebbia dei Colli Piacentini.

Perhaps the most successful Trebbiano-based blend are the Orvieto whites of Umbria, which use a local clone called Procanico.

Trebbiano is also used to produce balsamic vinegar.

Gascon whites such as Le Lesc from Plaimont and Grassa’s Ugni-Colombard blend have a pleasant citrus fruit character, hints of passion fruit and kiwi, clean finish. Unlike many wines from this region they do not taste confected or cloying and have lovely integration of fresh fruit flavours and crisp acidity.

The Trebbiano from Valentini is an entirely different beast. The wine, best after years in a cool cellar, shows a kaleidoscope of flavours that are creamy and crisp at once, ranging from freshly toasted hazelnuts to coconut shavings, and has an underlying bracing acidity that lends it an uncanny capacity to age. But let’s pour a glass of this beautiful wine and test the evolution. Give it a little time to open and out comes that elegant, minerally nose with ripe citrus aromas. Take a sip and experience how full and mouthfilling it is, how piquant and almost fat (but not quite). Note how refined the flavours are, how intensely they are rendered by its swathe of acidity, the sort that gives wines like this great potential for improvement with age. Observe how long the minerally finish is with its notes of hazelnut and liquorice

Three versions from Masciarelli illustrate how low yields can create impressive wines. The basic Trebbiano d’Abruzzo is typically floral with gentle apple and almond fruit. The Trebbiano d’Abruzzo Marina Cvetic, on the other hand, manages to combine great extract, a nose of finesse, fruit warmth and mineral freshness, power and depth of flavour.