It's Champagne Day! Cheers!
Since 2009, on the fourth Friday of October, the Champagne Day has been celebrated, an annual event born on social media on the initiative of Chris Oggenfuss, Californian Blogger and Wine Tutor, and which has now become a real trend. The hashtag #ChampagneDay shared on social media has gone viral on a global scale and brings together and involves all the enthusiasts who on this day are an integral part of a large family, that of the #Champagnelovers.
And it is precisely on this day that we want to talk to you about an important news regarding the Champagne world which will revolutionize the future of the entire sector and of the denomination.
Perhaps not everyone knows it, but in February 2022 the Institut National de l'Origine et de la Qualité (Inao), guarantor of the AOC denomination, approved on an experimental basis a new grape variety for the production of Champagne.
This is the white grape variety "Voltis" from the family of resistant vines, also known by the term PIWI (from the German pilzwiderstandfähig), literally "fungus-resistant vines".
Piwi are vines resulting from crosses between vines of different varieties which, generation after generation, have led to the selection of quality plants, with oenological characteristics comparable to traditional European vines and resistant to fungal diseases such as powdery mildew and downy mildew.
As resistant varieties, Piwi have a high sustainability potential which translates into a significant reduction in the use of pesticides in favor of more environmentally friendly viticulture, greater healthiness and quality of the grapes and consequently of the wines.
Given the impact of climate change and the resistance of pathogens to pesticides, with a view to environmental sustainability and future challenges in the vineyard, focusing on viticultural biodiversity is considered the only practicable path, with the Piwi vines as a valid integration to the traditional vines.
Furthermore, the introduction of Piwi would also allow for better integration of vineyards near residential centers in the so-called ZNT (Zones de Non Traitement), i.e. areas near houses, pedestrian areas and cycle paths where it is not possible to treat the vineyards.
The inclusion of the Voltis vine therefore arises from the need to face urgent social and economic challenges, in addition to the environmental ones mentioned above.
If today in Italy the varieties of Piwi vines registered in the National Vine Register are 36, 18 red grapes and 18 white grapes (even if currently none of these varieties are admitted to the production of DOC wines but only to "Table Wines" and “PGI”), the Voltis vine is the first resistant vine to be included in an AOC specification.
According to what was established by the Inao, the reform that approved the introduction of the Voltis vine for the production of Champagne falls within the framework of the procedure called "Variétés d'Intérêt à Fin d'Adaptation" (VIFA) which provides the possibility for producers of Champagne to plant Voltis with a maximum limit of 5% of the total areas cultivated by the farm, and to use this variety up to a maximum of 10% in the blend of the base cuvée.
The consensus on these vineyards is not unanimous, there are in fact those who observe the Piwi varieties with distrust, considering them a threat to the tradition and typicality of the native varieties; and instead there are those who also consider them as an expression of the terroir like the Vitis vinifera varieties and capable of expressing their potential to offer identifying and expressive wines.
It is worth underlining that it will still take at least 10 years of observation to definitively integrate the vine into the Champagne denomination.
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