The Gamay of Trasimeno

Legend has it that the first Gamay cuttings arrived on the shores of Lake Trasimeno around 1600 with the Spanish domination of central-southern Italy, following the peace of Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559. The Duchess Eleonora Mendozza, marrying in 1610 Fulvio Alessandro della Corgna, the last lord of Castiglione del Lago, would have brought some vines directly from Spain as a good omen. Recent genetic studies, conducted by the University of Perugia, have shown that the vine belongs not to the family of the homonymous French grape variety widespread in Beaujolais, but rather to the "grenache" family, widespread in various areas of southern France and in other areas of Italy under the name of Cannonau in Sardinia, Tai Rosso in Veneto, Bordò in the Marche and internationally as Garnacha (Spain), Grenache (France), and in general Grenache Noir throughout the rest of the world. On the shores and hills of Lake Trasimeno, the vine has adapted perfectly, expressing itself in a completely original way, privileging elegance and balance over the character and body that it manifests in rougher and warmer territories.