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 The
red grapevine Monica is one of the most ancient Sardinian grapevines, and
is present, even though in varying proportions, in all the Sardinian provinces,
with an overall presence which appears to be around 13%. Its origin is
controversial -one of the most probative theories is that it arrived in
Sardinia around the 11 th century, when Camoldese monks began to cultivate
the ground around their monasteries, and the name by which it is known
could come from this (monaco - monk, in Italian); but it could also have
been introduced in the Aragonese period, and in fact in some zones it is
known as 'Monica di Spagna', or ‘Uva mora'. According to Gemelli
from it is obtained 'a very valuable wine, called Monaca, from the name
of the grape'.
Moris calls it Vitis nectarea. The grapevine Monica is always present in
the Sardinian ampelography, even though often with different synonyms:
Gemelli, as we have seen, speaks of Monaca, il Seletti di Moncia, while
Cettolini reports the dialect names: Niedda mora, Mora di Spagna and that
in the Sassari area it is known by the synonym Pascale sardu. It is used
alone to obtain the DOC wine of the same name, ‘Monica di Sardegna’ if
from a large area, or ‘Monica di Cagliari’, in the differing
typologies, if from the classical Latin bush, both mixed with Bovale sardo
and Cannonau for the DOC wine ‘Mandrolisai’, or more often,
together with other local varieties to obtain laudable wines with invented
names, or others with geographical indications.
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