Bianchetta Trevigiana

Bianchetta Trevigiana is a white Italian wine grape variety that is grown in the Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Veneto wine regions of northeast Italy. Here the grape is rarely used a varietal but, instead, is a permitted blending grape adding acidity to the wines of several Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) zones including the sparkling wine Prosecco and has also been used for vermouth production. The name Trevigiana is derived from the province of Treviso where the grape is believed to have originated from.

While there are several grape varieties that variously share the synonym Bianchetta, most notably the Sicilian wine grape Albarola, DNA analysis has shown no direct genetic relationship between Bianchetta Trevigiana and any of the other Bianchetta varieties. Likewise, despite sharing the synonym Vernaccia (the root of which translate to "vernacular" or "local") with the notable Tuscan and Sardinian wine grapes, Biancheta Trevigiana appears to have no close relationship with any of those varieties. Instead, ampelographers believe that the grape is the result of a natural crossing between the white Veneto wine grape Durella and the nearly extinct red wine grape Brambana.

Ampelographers believe that first written account of Bianchetta Trevigiana was in the late 17th century under the synonym of Bianchetta Gentile. The name Bianchetta means "little white" with Gentile coming from the Latin term for "family" so this reference could be about several vines of "little white berries" that shared similar characteristics in the vineyard. The 1679 account from Italian writer Agostinetto di Cimadolmo described Bianchetta Gentile as growing in the Treviso region. The first detailed account of Bianchetta Trevigiana was in 1937 by grape-breeder Giovanni Dalmasso at the Istituto Sperimentale per la Viticoltura in Conegliano.

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