page_title: Vernaccia di Oristano
section_title: History and name
hierarchical_section_title: Vernaccia di Oristano / History and name
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Tharros, antike Ruinenstadt an der Westküste, Provinz Oristano, Sardinien, Italien.English: Tharros, ancient city ruins on the west coast, province of Oristano, Sardinia, Italy.
context_page_description: Vernaccia di Oristano is a white Italian wine grape variety grown on the island of Sardinia which makes a wide range of wine styles for the Denominazione di origine controllata of Vernaccia di Oristano based in the province of Oristano. This includes both dry and sweet wines as well as fortified "sherry-like" wines aged in a solera. The grape has a long history on the island of Sardinia with Sardinians claiming that consuming ample quantities of wine produced from the grape as being responsible for low instances of malaria on the island.
  Despite the similarities in their names and synonyms, Vernaccia di Oristano is a distinct variety that is not related to the Tuscan wine grape Vernaccia used to make Vernaccia di San Gimignano. The grape also does not appear to be related to the red wine grapes Aleatico or Grenache which are known as Vernaccia in different parts of Italy.
context_section_description: According to legend, Vernaccia was introduced to the island of Sardinia by the Phoenicians sometime after the ancient Semitic civilization founded the port of Tharros in 800 BC. The first documented mentioning of Vernaccia di Oristano was from a legal document drafted in 1327 in the town of Iglesias in southwest Sardinian that specified that winemakers were limited to producing one barrel each of wine made from several different grape varieties, including Vernaccia, Greco, Brusco bianco and Vermiglio, but that each wine was to be kept separate.
  There are several theories behind the origins of the name Vernaccia that is shared by Vernaccia di Oristano and several other Italian varieties. The most common theory is that name is derived from the Latin word vernaculus (also the root of the word "vernacular") which means "native" or "indigenous" and would be attached to any grape perceived to be native to the local region. In the case of Vernaccia di Oristano, ampelographers believe that the grape may be native to the Tirso river valley that crosses the island of Sardinia before emptying into the Gulf of Oristano.
  Other theories postulate that the name could be derived from other Latin words such as verrum, meaning boar, based on the beasts that are common in central Italy and known to trespass into vineyard and eat the grapes on the vine. The Latin word for winter, ibernum, is another possibility since many of the Vernaccia species were used as table grapes for eating during the winter months. One other contending theory is that the village of Vernazza in the Cinque Terre region of Liguria on the northwest coast of Italy could be a potential origin and eponym for some of the Vernaccia grapes. However, in the case of Vernaccia di Oristano there is no direct evidence linking the grape to the Ligurian wine region.
caption: According to legend, the ancient Phoenicians introduced Vernaccia di Oristano to the island of Sardinia sometime after they founded the port of Tharros on the west coast of the island (ruins pictured).
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