Prunent Grape???

TomHill · August 2, 2016, 6:09pm

Never heard of this grape before…and I thought I knew Nebbiolo.
It may be the grandfather of Nebbiolo, it my be one of the early clones of Nebbiolo.
Grown by Cantine Garrone in the Val d’Ossola of the furtherest northern reaches of Piemonte.

Details on WineMonger Site: http://www.winemonger.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2489

Anybody had this wine??

Tom

lleichtman · August 2, 2016, 7:50pm

I can’t find any listing for this grape. Even Jancis Robinson does not mention it. Is it related to Prugnolo?

Wes_Barton · August 2, 2016, 9:30pm

It’s listed as a principal synonym of Nebbiolo.

John_Morris · August 2, 2016, 10:09pm

In the index to D’Agata’s book, under Prunent it says “See Nebbiolo.”

For Prugnolo, it says “See Sangiovese.”

TomHill · August 2, 2016, 11:25pm

Janet lists it as a synonym for Nebbiolo, a local name in the Val d’Ossoia for Nebbiolo. The Cantine Garrone seems to imply
that Nebbiolo evolved from Prunent. Don’t think the DNA has been done on it, though.
Emily is sending me a btl of it to try…so I’ll weigh in w/ the definitive opinion later.
Tom

John_Morris · August 3, 2016, 12:02am

I didn’t actually find a reference to “Prunent” in D’Agata’s text, but I didn’t have time to read the entire section on nebbiolo. His book pretty exhaustively summarizes the DNA research to the time of publication (2014).

Wes_Barton · August 3, 2016, 12:52am

Last paragraph of p.354 Talking about regional names and historic references that show how long the variety has been around. “According to Berta and Mainardi (1997) all three are predated by Prunent (from pruina or bloom), another Nebbiolo synonym used in Piedmont’s Val d’Ossola since 1309.” Then “This plethora of names reflects not only Nebbiolo’s age and intimate links to specific pockets of the Italian countryside, but also the fact that there are many Nebbiolo biotypes.” That’s a reference to some of the different names referring to physical characteristics of a specific local biotype that aren’t universal to the variety.

TomHill · August 3, 2016, 2:24pm

When I want some knowledge on almost any subject beyond neutrons, I go to DarrellCorti:

Darrell:

Tom,
I have no knowledge of this variety. However, its name may only be a synonym, just like “prugnolo” is a syn for sangiovese in certain parts of Tuscany. It may not even be nebbiolo.
This area is one where both culture and cuisine are not Piemontese. The current inhabitants of the area are called the Valdesi or “Waldensians” followers of a canon of the cathedral of Lyon in the 11 th century who was an early church reformer. His idea was that Christians should live as they did in the early Church period with everything in common. He was burned at the stake and his followers fled to northern Piemonte, then part of Savoie. They found refuge in the valleys of that area, creating a culture and a cuisine. Up to the creation of Italy in mid 1800s, they were persecuted by the government.

The word for prune in Italian is “prugna” possibly giving rise to the cultivar’s name.

In this area generally nebbiolo is called picotener, which means tender stem. JaRue could look it up in the Amerine Room in Dalmasso’s work on Red Varieties.
D

Tom,
Further to my note previously, why do they think this is a Celtic variety? The Celts didn’t do agriculture that I know of. If nebbiolo is a cross with Freisa as one of the parents, how could it have been brought in? It would seem very difficult in this area to do viticulture, let alone do it during Celtic times. However, history is created sometimes by supposition, not facts. We don’t know of any Celtic grape varieties.
D

Arnt_Egil_Nordlien · August 5, 2016, 4:29pm

I have tasted the wines of Garrone including the Prunent a few times. They have a shop in the middle of Domodossola if anyone is near. It is about 100 km straight north from Gattinara. There are a couple of other producers in the Val d’Ossola these days, but Garrone is by far the largest and the only with any distribution. As far as I know Prunent is considered a clone of nebbiolo, rather than a forefather. But I think there is no research done on this. They have a long tradition in making Prunent in this area, but not much vineyard left now. A recent DOC might help to keep the tradition. The Prunent is (of course) much lighter than a Langhe nebbiolo and also lighter than the wines of Gattinara, Donnaz and Valtellina. Of some reason there is also a lot of merlot grown in the valley.

TomHill · August 5, 2016, 4:55pm

Arnt Egil Nordlien:

I have tasted the wines of Garrone including the Prunent a few times. They have a shop in the middle of Domodossola if anyone is near. It is about 100 km straight north from Gattinara. There are a couple of other producers in the Val d’Ossola these days, but Garrone is by far the largest and the only with any distribution. As far as I know Prunent is considered a clone of nebbiolo, rather than a forefather. But I think there is no research done on this. They have a long tradition in making Prunent in this area, but not much vineyard left now. A recent DOC might help to keep the tradition. The Prunent is (of course) much lighter than a Langhe nebbiolo and also lighter than the wines of Gattinara, Donnaz and Valtellina. Of some reason there is also a lot of merlot grown in the valley.

Thanks for your perspective on this grape, Arnt. From what I’m coming up from several sources is that Prunent is the local Val d’Ossola synonym for Nebbiolo.
Best I can tell is that no DNA work has been done on it. I’m going to be contacting the Garrone folks eventually.
Tom

Levi_Dalton · August 5, 2016, 10:29pm

I had the 2013 Garrone Prünent a few weeks ago, and I thought it was excellent. The owner was there and he gave a brief introduction. The winery is fairly new.

TomHill · August 5, 2016, 11:11pm

Thanks for your feedback, Levi. When Emily/WineMonger gets back from Austria, she’s going to
send me a btl to try. I’ve had a number of good reports on Garrone.
Tom