Here’s an updated link for a free download of the 2019 Slow Wine Guide (the previously link is now stale because so many people used it fyi).

Wondering why this post preceded by an image culled from a (public domain) vintage poster for the 1968 science fiction classic “Barbarella”? Read on.

Ever since the Italian-English wine glossary was first launched here, Maurizio Gily — a leading Italian agronomist, writer, publisher, and professor at the University of Gastronomic Sciences in Piedmont – has lent a hand in fine-tuning the entries.

Most recently, he shared the following note from a California grower, who points out that barbatella can be translated in a variety of ways in English depending on context.

The entry has been updated accordingly and Maurizio has graciously and generously added a number of new entries as well (thank you, Maurizio!).

In case you’ve never seen a barbatella — a rooted cutting (otherwise known as a bench graft) — here’s a video shot at Vivai Cooperativi Rauscedo, the famed Italian nursery that provides bench grafts to wineries and growers across the world (it’s in Italian but it shows how the rooted cuttings/bench grafts are prepared and shipped etc.).

Thanks for being here and thanks for speaking Italian wine!

Hi Maurizio,

There are a number of different names we use depending on whether the vine has been rooted and how old the vine is. Here is a link that explains it fairly well:

http://www.sunridgenurseries.com/index.php/products

In my experience, I have heard “greengrowers” used for grafted vines that have been planted in pots with soil and “bench grafts” used for dormant scion/rootstock grafted vines.

Here is little more in-depth information:

https://www.practicalwinery.com/janFeb07/janfeb07p91.htm

All that being said, I like the name “barbatella” much better.

Reminds me of a young Jane Fonda for some reason… she starred in a movie back in the 1960s called Barbarella.