Abruzzo is the latest battleground for Italy's wine industr, recently, Italy's Ministry of Agriculture has accepted the request to reintroduce the synonym "Cordisco" into the National Vine Register.

The decree seems to support the Consorzio Tutela Vini d'Abruzzo's claim to be able to use the term "Montepulciano" only for wines produced within the region.

That means banning it for regions such as Marche, where the grape variety has been very much cultivated historically and where there are still some 2200 hectares planted. According to the Abruzzo authority, the use of the synonym Cordisco on the label, as well as on all wineries advertising and marketing material, will allow producers from other regions to "correctly indicate wines made from this grape", without reference to Abruzzo's symbolic one.

But the decision does not please everyone; no Italian or foreign consumer is familiar with the term "Cordisco", whose origins date back to the Middle Ages and are now lost in common usage.

As noted Marche producers such as Velenosi point out, the discovery that Montepulciano and Sangiovese were two distinct grape varieties dates back to ampelographic studies in 1853. Only in that year were the two grapes considered different. Since then, "Primaticcio" has come to indicate Sangiovese (the grape of Tuscan origin ripens "prima", or earlier) and "Cordisco" Montepulciano.

The president of the Consorzio Vini d'Abruzzo, Alessandro Nicodemi, is satisfied with the outcome, even though it is hard on his neighbors elsewhere: "By applying the synonym, the other territories will be able to comply with the new decree on labeling and the principle of correct information, avoiding illicit use and usurpation of PDOs on labels or in wine advertising, which in our opinion has the sole result of confusing the end consumer."

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