🍇 Catarratto

Catarratto is a white wine grape of Sicily; VIVC lists it as Catarratto Bianco Comune (no. 2341), and by DNA markers it descends from Garganega and Mantonico Bianco. In 2015 it covered 21,000 ha in Italy (OIV), one of the country's ten most planted varieties. It goes into Marsala and the wines of the Alcamo and Sicilia DOCs.

According to the description in Italy's national register of varieties (code 058), the variety has hermaphrodite flowers and golden-yellow berries with thick skin, and ripens in the third period, from late August to late September. The crop is abundant but irregular, resistance to weather, diseases and pests is rated excellent, and the variety is used only for wine. The register has a separate entry for Catarratto Bianco Lucido (code 059), which crops more heavily and more steadily.

For Marsala from the province of Trapani the law permits Grillo, Catarratto, Inzolia and Damaschino. In the Alcamo DOC the white wine has to contain at least 60% Catarratto, and the “classico” at least 80% Comune and/or Lucido. A varietal Sicilia DOC requires at least 85% of the variety and allows up to 13 t/ha.

Catarratto is a parent of Grillo: according to VIVC, Grillo came from Catarratto Comune and Muscat of Alexandria. Plantings have shrunk: VIVC lists 59,815 ha in Italy in 1982 and 43,246 ha in 2000, while the OIV gives 21,000 ha for 2015.

Why it matters to you. If a Sicilia DOC label says “Catarratto”, the bottle holds at least 85% of this variety. The word “Lucido” as a synonym is allowed by a decree of 21 November 2018 only for wines from grapes harvested in Sicily.