Verdeca was a popular base for Vermouth in C20th Italy, it was hardly used for wine; a player in the Locorotondo blend, no bragging rights there. Plantings are still concentrated around Bari and Taranto, through to Martina Franca and Locorotondo. It’s DNA matches Lagorthi, a light-skinned Greek variety from the north Peloponnese which is hugely popular, and planted as high as 900m. It would be wonderful if Troia and Verdeca had come over with Achilles… sadly that is very unlikely. Verdeca is named after the green colour of its medium to large oval berries. The bunch is conical, the variety is productive and resilient to most diseases. There are around 800 ha of the variety, nearly all of which is grown in Puglia. Verdeca is making a bit of a comeback and now commonly used as a single variety wine as Pugliese winemakers re-claim their indigenous varieties. The flavours are delicate, with nuanced peach and citrus fruit, so, I think oak is a little heavy-handed; it seems to perform well with some skin contact and amphora aging. I am not sure that there is a DOC for a single varietal Verdeca, it is a player in:
Locorotondo DOC
Martina Franca DOC
Terra d’Otranto DOC
Colline Joniche Tarantine DOC
Gravina DOC (max 30%)
Lacryma Christi DOC (Campania)
Parent crossings Verdeca x Primitivo (Tribidrag, what the Croatians call Primitivo) – Plavina (Red-variety that was probably born in Puglia and is now widely planted in Croatia)
