Nasco is a white

Italian wine Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine. In 2018 Italy accounted fo ...

grape variety This list of grape varieties includes cultivated grapes, whether used for wine, or eating as a table grape, fresh or dried (raisin, currant, sultana). For a complete list of all grape species including those unimportant to agriculture, see Viti ...

that is grown primarily in

Sardinia Sardinia ( ; it, Sardegna, label=Italian, Corsican and Tabarchino ; sc, Sardigna , sdc, Sardhigna; french: Sardaigne; sdn, Saldigna; ca, Sardenya, label=Algherese and Catalan) is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after ...

around the city of Cagliari. The grape has a long history on the island and is described by wine expert Jancis Robinson as "ancient".J. Robinson ''Jancis Robinson's Guide to Wine Grapes'' pg 125 Oxford University Press 1996 There is a special ''

Denominazione di origine controllata The following four classifications of wine constitute the Italian system of labelling and legally protecting Italian wine: * ''Denominazione di origine'' (DO, rarely used; ; English: “designation of origin”), * ''Indicazione geografica tipi ...

'' (DOC) designation, ''Nasco di Cagliari'', for

varietal A varietal wine is a wine made primarily from a single named grape variety, and which typically displays the name of that variety on the wine label.The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, 2000.winepros.com.au. ...

wines that are 95–100% Nasco.P. Saunders ''Wine Label Language'' pp. 186 Firefly Books 2004

History

While the grape was once widely planted throughout Sardinia, vineyards were devastated by the

phylloxera epidemic The Great French Wine Blight was a severe blight of the mid-19th century that destroyed many of the vineyards in France and laid waste to the wine industry. It was caused by an aphid that originated in North America and was carried across the Atl ...

of the 19th century and Nasco's numbers have been slow to rebound. Today there are less than 40

hectare The hectare (; SI symbol: ha) is a non-SI metric unit of area equal to a square with 100- metre sides (1 hm2), or 10,000 m2, and is primarily used in the measurement of land. There are 100 hectares in one square kilometre. An acre is ...

s (100 acres) of the vine planted on the island.

DOC wines

The DOC zone for Nasco extends south and west of the Gennargentu mountains and includes the broad

Campidano Campidano ( sc, Campidànu) is a plain located in South-Western Sardinia (Italy), covering approximately 100 kilometres between Cagliari and Oristano. Geography Geologically, it is a graben, a tectonic structure formed in the mid-Pliocene/early ...

plain.Joseph Batianich & David Lynch Vino Italiano: The Regional Wines of Italy" pg 426 Clarkson Potter Publishers Here Nasco can be produced in dry (''secco''),

sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketone ...

(''dolce'') and

fortified A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

(''liquoroso'') styles. Nasco grapes that are destined for DOC wine production must be harvested to a yield no greater than 10

tonnes The tonne ( or ; symbol: t) is a unit of mass equal to 1000 kilograms. It is a non-SI unit accepted for use with SI. It is also referred to as a metric ton to distinguish it from the non-metric units of the short ton (United States c ...

/hectare. The finished wines must reach a certain minimum

alcohol level Alcohol by volume (abbreviated as ABV, abv, or alc/vol) is a standard measure of how much alcohol (ethanol) is contained in a given volume of an alcoholic beverage (expressed as a volume percent). It is defined as the number of millilitres (mL) o ...

based on the style of the particular wine ranging from 13.5% for ''dolce'', 14.5% ''secco'' and 17.5% for ''liquoroso'' wines. A separate ''

Riserva Reserve wine is wine of a higher quality than usual, a wine that has been aged before sale, or both. Traditionally, winemakers would reserve some of their best wine rather than sell it immediately, coining the term. In some countries the use of t ...

'' bottling can also be produced provided the wine is

aged Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...

a minimum of two years prior to release with at least one of those years being spent in

oak An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ''L ...

Synonyms

Over the years Nasco has been known under a variety of synonyms including Basco Bianco, Nasco Bianco, Nasco di Sardegna, Nascu, Nasko Sardinskii, Nusco, Ogu de Aranna and Resu.

Vitis International Variety Catalogue The Vitis International Variety Catalogue (VIVC) is a database of various species and varieties/cultivars of grapevine, the genus ''Vitis''. VIVC is administered by the Geilweilerhof Institute for Grape Breeding (''Institut für Rebenzüchtung Gei ...

(VIVC)
Nasco
' Accessed: October 12th, 2012

References

{{Authority control White wine grape varieties Wine of Sardinia