Sex&Picolit Question...

Coupla thoughts came to mind last night as we were tasting the Bulfon:
1. We know that Picolit does not suffer from "floral abortion", but is merely a sterile variety & requires pollination from some nearby fertile variety. So you interplant Picolit w/ other stuff, like Verduzzo.
Yet Picolit wines seem still pretty rare and mostly appear as very expensive passito-style wines.
Why isn't there being more Picolit grown and being made as a dry wine? Is it a variety that deserves to become extinct?
2. Supposedly, when one variety pollinates another variety, the grape takes on the character of the two pollinating partners. Does this mean that the berries within a bunch of Picolit vary all over the place, depending upon the cross-pollinating partner?? Or is only the seeds within the berry that vary and the grape itself remains true to Picolit?
3. Is Bulfon's PicolitNeri also sterile like the regular/white Picolit?
I know...kinda esoteric. But curious minds...
Tom

2. Supposedly, when one variety pollinates another variety, the grape takes on the character of the two pollinating partners. Does this mean that the berries within a bunch of Picolit vary all over the place, depending upon the cross-pollinating partner?? Or is only the seeds within the berry that vary and the grape itself remains true to Picolit?

I believe it is just the seeds that show the impact of the pollinating partner.

Picolit (also legitimate as Picolito) became a rage within Italy and especially in Friuli where it is raised where many see this not as a dessert wine but as a meditation wine and are willing to pay the often outrageous prices demanded.

Picolit varietal wines continue to be made in two methods –harvest in October, drying on mats until raisened and then pressed or late harvested and not raisened. Dry whites are not produced because at any stage of readiness these are grapes with very high brix and making a dry wine from them would produce an odd-ball (something akin to dry Muscat) that shows a sweet, floral nose and an almost puckering dryness.

As to whether Picolit is "a variety that deserves to become extinct", I suppose that the moment it falls out of fashion and fails to bring its high price will be the moment at which vintners have to do some serious consideration. Some have compared Picolit to Tokaji in style and quality. I am not one who would make that comparison.

With regard to Picolit Neri (which would correctly be Piculit Neri) - To the best of my knowledge there is only a vague family resemblance to Picolit, the two having the similar name not because of genetic relationship but simply because of the very smell berries both yield. In support of this, Piculit Neri was known and popular during the time of the Romans while Picolit traces its way back only to either the Middle-Ages or the 17th century, depending on which botanist one follows.

Oh yes...Brian is quite correct - it is only the seeds that vary.

N.B. As a possible point of curiosity, your reference in the title of this thread is not far off the mark. Throughout Friuli the term picolito long ago took on a slang meaning, that used primarily to tease men thought to have a particularly small penis. Why not – the Romans have their ziti and the French their pipe.

Best
Rogov

1. We know that Picolit does not suffer from "floral abortion", but is merely a sterile variety & requires pollination from some nearby fertile variety. So you interplant Picolit w/ other stuff, like Verduzzo.

I didn't know about Picolit. My understanding is that grapes will, if not fertilised, produce grapes anyway.

Why isn't there being more Picolit grown and being made as a dry wine?

Market demand.

Is it a variety that deserves to become extinct?

No. Thankfully there is increasing interest in niche varieties and who knows, in 40 years Picolit could be as fashionable as Viognier is today

2. Supposedly, when one variety pollinates another variety, the grape takes on the .character of the two pollinating partners. Does this mean that the berries within a bunch of Picolit vary all over the place, depending upon the cross-pollinating partner?? Or is only the seeds within the berry that vary and the grape itself remains true to Picolit?

No, the berries are true to Picolit. It's the seeds which contain the genes of the parents.

Thanks to Daniel Rogov for clarification and additional cultural juice!