Tocai Friulano

Also known as Friulano, Tai, Sauvignonasse, Sauvignon Vert.

A neutral-to-savory white grape long grown across Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Veneto, historically labeled "Tocai Friulano." DNA profiling in the early 2000s established that the variety is in fact Sauvignonasse (also called Sauvignon Vert), a grape once widespread in Bordeaux and today almost vanished there — genetically unrelated to Sauvignon Blanc despite the similar name, and, despite its old name's implication, entirely unrelated to Hungary's Tokaji (made from Furmint and other varieties in the Tokaj-Hegyalja region).

Following a long dispute over the resemblance between "Tocai" and Hungary's protected "Tokaji" designation, an EU ruling forced Italy to drop "Tocai" from wine labels by 2007-2008. Since then the same registered variety carries different commercial names by region: "Friulano" in Friuli-Venezia Giulia, and "Tai" — a Veneto contraction of the old name — across Veneto, where several disciplinari (e.g. Colli Euganei) use "Tai" as the varietal-typology name for wine while others (Lison, Bagnoli di Sopra, Bianco di Custoza, Breganze, Colli Berici, and many more) still use "Tocai Friulano" directly as the ampelographic/vine-variety name in their grape-composition articles. This dataset canonicizes to "Tocai Friulano" — the name used by the large majority (19 of 20) of the Veneto denominations that reference this grape, including the variety's own MASAF national-register entry — with Colli Euganei's "Tai" corrected to it per this rollout's canonical-name pitfall (same treatment as Malvasia Bianca Lunga/Malvasia del Chianti).