12 Wine Grapes Worth Discovering
Famoso di Cesena According to Ian D’Agata’s superb book "Native Wine Grapes of Italy," the famoso di Cesena grape, long grown
in the Emilia-Romagna section of Italy, was considered extinct when, in 2000, two rows of old vines were discovered.
Encruzado This rare grape accounts for some of the best white wines from the Dão region of northern Portugal, a country far better known for reds.
Vespaiolo The only wines I’ve had from this white grape from the Veneto region of Italy come from the producer Contrà Soarda,
but I have been enchanted every time, whether in its young, fresh Breganze version or the Vignasilan version, which receives longer aging at the winery.
Blatterle According to "Wine Grapes" by Jancis Robinson, Julia Harding
and José Vouillamoz, this white grape, from Alto Adige in the northeast of Italy where it meets Austria and Switzerland, is almost extinct.
Carricante I love this white grape from the Mount Etna region of Sicily, an area far better known for its reds.
Limniona Like so many other rare grapes, limniona, indigenous to the Thessaly region of central Greece, may
have disappeared if not for the efforts of growers like Christos Zafeirakis, who helped resurrect it.
