In rare form

Drinking one of the rarest wines in the world sounds like something that only the super-rich might do. Visions of crystal glasses raised by velvet-gloved hands arise in the imagination. Happily, rarity doesn’t always mean inaccessibility. Beautiful wines can simply fade into obscurity when our attention is distracted by the latest trends.

Uvalino: The Forgotten Grape

Uvalino is one such grape that has teetered on the verge of extinction. It is a thick-skinned red grape, grown in the hills of Asti in the northwestern Italian region of Piedmont. While Italy is famous for growing large numbers of native grape varieties, Uvalino had been forgotten at the expense of its more profitable neighbours - particularly Muscat, Barbera, and of course Nebbiolo, the sought-after grape of Barolo.

Once upon a time, every vineyard in the area had at least a few rows of Uvalino growing. It was used to make one of the most well-regarded wines of the region as a single variety or added to improve the quality of other wines. Uvalino would be brought out on special occasions or given as a precious gift.

It was also considered to be a folk remedy, with a small glass being administered to combat a range of maladies. This may not be as fanciful as it sounds. The grapes are high in stilbenes and flavonols, two of the polyphenols associated with the beneficial effects of drinking red wine. It also contains some 30 times the usual concentration of the antioxidant Resveratrol.

Pioneering Piemontese Producers

I walked up the sloping road of the unassuming azienda vinicola of winemaker Mariuccia Borio back in 2019, my last foreign trip before Coronavirus hit. Cascina Castlèt is a homely and neat building. Sunlight bounced off the spotless white-washed walls and accented joyful hanging baskets bursting with bright colour. An aloof farm tabby yawned as I passed on my way to meet Mariuccia, known to all as Maria, in her home’s rustic tasting room.

Maria remembered the special Uvalino wines from her childhood and was determined to revive this unique grape. In 1990, she began by working with the legendary oenologist Renato Ratti and the small plantings of Uvalino he had made on land just opposite her own vineyards. Those original rows no longer exist, and it took Maria a decade of dedicated work and self-funded research before she was finally able to produce a commercially viable wine in 2004. She has continued producing a single variety Uvalino wine each year since.

When I sampled her full range of wines, the comic label of Cascina Castlèt’s Barbera d’Asti stood out to me. It features a black and white photo of Maria and her cousins, playing on a Vespa as children. This sense of fun and heritage is the lifeblood of Cascina Castlèt. 

The Borio family have lived on this property for generations, acting as custodians of vineyards planted by the Marquis Filippo Asinari of San Marzano, one of the pioneers of modern viticulture in Piedmont. Maria took over the estate from her father in the 1970s.

Her efforts to preserve Uvalino, working with the Institute of Experimental Viticulture since 1995, were rewarded in 2002 when Uvalino was added to the official registry of Italian grape varieties. Genetic analysis demonstrated it was an autochthonous grape - native to the area - and unrelated to anything else being grown locally. A compelling reason to save these vines from oblivion.