Albanello bianco (or just Albanello) is a white Italian wine grape variety grown primarily in Sicily where it has a long tradition producing sweet dessert-style wines from grapes that have been dried in the sun on mats for several days after

harvest Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor-i ...

. In the eighteenth century, the grape was an important component in the rare and expensive Marsala-style wine ''Ambrato di Comiso''.J. Robinson, J. Harding and J. Vouillamoz ''Wine Grapes - A complete guide to 1,368 vine varieties, including their origins and flavours'' pg 22 Allen Lane 2012 In recent years, plantings of Albanello have been steadily declining and as of the 2000 census there were 125 hectares (309 acres) of the variety still planted in Italy, nearly all in Sicily. Part of the decline has been attributed to the variety's difficulties to cultivate and tendency to ripen late.

Wine regions

While plantings of Albanello has sharply declined over the last couple centuries, it can still be found in the Sicilian provinces of Caltanissetta,

Catania Catania (, , Sicilian and ) is the second largest municipality in Sicily, after Palermo. Despite its reputation as the second city of the island, Catania is the largest Sicilian conurbation, among the largest in Italy, as evidenced also by ...

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and Siracusa. In Siracusa, it is still a permitted variety in white wines from the Eloro DOC where it is a minor blending component complementing

Catarratto bianco Catarratto is a white Italian wine grape (wine), grape planted primarily in Sicily where it is the most widely planted grape. Catarratto can make body (wine), full bodied wines with lemon notes.J. Robinson: ''Jancis Robinson's Wine Course'' Third ...

and

Grillo Grillo, also known as Riddu and Rossese bianco, is a white Italian wine grape variety that withstands high temperatures and is widely used in Sicilian winemaking and, in particular, for making Marsala. Its origins are uncertain, but it may ha ...

Relationship to other grapes

Albanello bianco is often confused with the similarly named

Albanella Albanella is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Salerno in the Campania region of south-western Italy. It is located 51 kilometers from the city of Salerno. The town slogan is , which translates to "the land of the olive trees" in English. ...

from the

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region of

Marche Marche ( , ) is one of the twenty regions of Italy. In English, the region is sometimes referred to as The Marches ( ). The region is located in the central area of the country, bordered by Emilia-Romagna and the republic of San Marino to the ...

along the

Adriatic The Adriatic Sea () is a body of water separating the Italian Peninsula from the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula. The Adriatic is the northernmost arm of the Mediterranean Sea, extending from the Strait of Otranto (where it connects to the Ionian Sea) ...

coast.

DNA profiling DNA profiling (also called DNA fingerprinting) is the process of determining an individual's DNA characteristics. DNA analysis intended to identify a species, rather than an individual, is called DNA barcoding. DNA profiling is a forensic tec ...

has determined that there is some relationship between Albanello and the Sardinian wine grape Albaranzeuli bianco but the exact connection is unclear.

Synonyms

Over the years Albanello has been known under a variety of synonyms including Alablanca, Albanella, Albanello Bianco di Siracusa, Alvanella, Alvanello, Arnina Bianca, Arvina and Claretta. Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC)
Albanello
'' Accessed: December 26th, 2012

References

{{reflist White wine grape varieties