Bosco Elicio DOC

Bosco Eliceo is a zone stretching along the Adriatic Coast in the province of Ferrara. It consists of a long strip of dunes that extends from south of Volano, at the mouth of the river Pò, to the nearby provincial capital of Ravenna, running parallel to the sea.

Bosco Eliceo is not only a beach and a tourist area with pinewoods and valleys. It is also a place where the ripening process of the grapes profits by the salty breeze of the Adriatic Sea and especially by the heat of the beaches. As you can imagine, the fields are very sandy.

Another distinctive feature of the zone is the very rarely seen red grape, Fortana (locally called Uva d’Oro). The variety were introduced in Ferrara by Renata di Francia (1510-1575), the Duchess of Ferrara, who actually “imported” it from the French wine district, Côte-d’Or. Renata was the daughter of Louis XII and the wife of Ercole d’Este (1431-1505), Count of Ferrara.

A characteristic of the vine cultivation in this area is related to the fact that the grapes are grown close to the famous forest, Bosco Eliceo, which gave the name of the zone (bosco: forest). The fields are distributed in the municipalities of Goro, Mesola, Lago Santo, parts of Comacchio, Argenta and Codigoro in the Ferrara province, as well as in parts of the provinces Cervia and Ravenna.

The first plantings were made in the 18^th century, and efforts were especially favored by the Fortana grape’s excellent ability to adapt to the unique, sandy conditions. Actually, the variety felt so comfortable, that it was able to survive the Phylloxera epidemic that ravaged Europe in the end of last century. Many rootstocks of the vineyards are still native varieties.

The grapes Merlot and Sauvignon were introduced only recently, but paradoxically, they have benefited from the favorable growth conditions in Bosco. Quite interestingly, these two varieties here give results that differ significantly from the other Italian region’s wines from those grapes.

The other regions in Italy should perhaps consider moving their vineyards out in the dunes, as in Bosco Eliceo.

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