Vermentino Nero

A black-berried Tuscan native, first mentioned in the Bollettino del Comizio Agrario di Massa of 1874, and cultivated on the coastal hills of upper Tuscany. Nearly went extinct after WWII before being rediscovered and revived in the late 1980s by growers around Massa.

Long assumed to be a black-berried mutation of white Vermentino due to shared ampelographic traits, but 2004 genetic analysis by the Università Cattolica di Piacenza established it as an autonomous variety, sharing only about 25% of its alleles with Vermentino Bianco — not a simple color mutation of the same grape (per Candia dei Colli Apuani's own disciplinare, Art. 9.A2, corroborated by independent secondary sources).

Gives a ruby-red wine, fragrant and fruity on the nose, medium-bodied and decently persistent on the palate. Grown mainly in Candia dei Colli Apuani, Lunigiana, and Colli di Luni.