Pallagrello bianco

Pallagrello bianco is a white Italian wine grape variety that is grown in Campania. The grape has a long history in the region and was one the varieties planted in 1775 by architect and engineer Luigi Vanvitelli in the fan-shaped Vigna del Ventaglio vineyard created for the royal palace of King Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies (Ferdinand IV of Naples) in Caserta. Following the phylloxera epidemic of the mid-19th century and the economic devastation of the World Wars of the early 20th century, plantings of Pallagrello bianco declined greatly and the variety was thought to be extinct until it was rediscovered growing in an abandoned Campanian vineyard in the 1990s.

Despite having similar names and both varieties originated in Campania, Pallagrello bianco is not a color mutation of the red Campanian wine grape Pallagrello nero though DNA profiling has not determined yet if the two varieties are closely related. DNA analysis has ruled out a relationship with another white Campanian wine grape, Coda di Volpe, which is known under the synonym Pallagrello and has similar looking "fox tail-shaped" grape clusters.

Ampelographers believe that Pallagrello bianco is likely native to Campania and originated in what is now the province of Caserta somewhere between the communes of Piedimonte Matese and Alife. The grape was traditionally made as a straw wine with the name Pallagrello being derived from the Italian word pagliarello which refers to the straw mat that Pallagrello bianco were laid on after harvest to dry out before fermentation.

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Wikipedia