Romagna Albana

Whether the Romans brought Albana to Romagna cannot be established, the production rules say, but the region became its main and almost only home in Italy. Around 1300 Pier de' Crescenzi called it the best grape at Forlì and throughout Romagna. In the early twentieth century Mariano Savelli of the agricultural chemistry laboratory at Forlì listed its best hills, from Dozza and Riolo to Bertinoro, Cesena, Longiano and Montiano.

Albana ripens unevenly, builds up much sugar and keeps good acidity, so almost every farm had a few vines. The first-ripening bunches made a dry wine for the hard summer work; the later ones a stronger wine that often stayed sweet when autumn cold stopped fermentation. Some bunches were hung in lofts to dry and pressed for passito for baptisms, weddings and mass. Cellars were cut into the Spungone rock. Albana became a DOC in 1967 and a DOCG by decree of 13 April 1987.

The zone covers communes in the provinces of Bologna, Ravenna and Forlì-Cesena, among them Castel San Pietro Terme, Faenza, Riolo Terme, Bertinoro, Forlì and Cesena. The rules link the best Albana to the Spungone, a yellowish ridge of Pliocene sandy limestone full of fossils set in clays, which runs from the Faenza area to Cesena. It is the first relief seen from the Via Emilia and stands out because it resists erosion better than the clays around it. Like the Vena del Gesso, it has steep, bare south slopes and gentler, wooded or farmed north slopes. Its rock carries the fortresses of Bertinoro, Meldola, Castrocaro and Predappio, and springs along it feed the spas of Castrocaro and Fratta Terme.

On either side of the ridge Albana grows on more or less calcareous clays and clay-silts and on yellow sands poor in lime. Traditional vineyards face south-east to south-west, and results are best above about 100 m, where soils restrain the vine's vigour.

The rules call Albana a strong case of interaction between climate, soil, grape and winemaking tradition, and say attempts to grow it elsewhere have been disappointing. Savelli wrote that away from the Spungone hills the wine "loses its golden colour, scent and softness" and becomes an ordinary good white. The wines share a characteristic note the rules place among vegetal scents, close to sage. Depending on the lime in the soil it comes with more or less marked floral notes and decided fruit, usually apricot. The grape needs good light, and differing clay and lime contents shape structure and aroma.

Romagna Albana must be at least 95% Albana. The rules allow five types: secco, amabile, dolce, passito and passito riserva. At most 70% of the grape weight may become wine (7,000 l/ha) for the first three, and 50% (5,000 l/ha) for the passito types. Passito grapes may dry until 30 March after the harvest, in ventilated, dehumidified air if needed, and must reach at least 284 g/l of sugar; growers whose grapes dry on the vine with noble rot may make a passito riserva with as little as 4% actual alcohol. The passito may be sold from 1 September and the riserva from 1 December of the year after the harvest. Wood is allowed for all types.