Is there any Grechetto in Australia?

A Reader Asks:

Is anybody growing Grechetto and making wine with it in Australia? (used in Orvieto Italian white wines)

Darby Replies

I don't think so.

I don't know if anyone is using it in Australia and it doesn't appear in the list of varieties held by the CSIRO which was published in George Kerridge and Alan Antcliff's Wine Grape Varieties.



The picture above is yours truly in an enoteca in Todi near Orvieto in Umbria where I first encountered the variety. It was more a Salumeria than an enoteca but the man in the white coat was more than happy to sell me a couple of lovely bottles of Grechetto di Todi.

Grechetto, greco di tufo and grecanico are three unrelated Italian white wine grape varieties, and, you guessed it, the Grec- part refers to their supposed Greek Origins.

Grechetto makes a good white wine either alone or blended with varieties such as Trebbiano, Verdello (not Verdelho!!) and Malvasia.

Usually when I say some variety is not grown in Australia someone pops out of the woodwork and tells me I'm wrong...If you'd like to prove me wrong post a comment.