n the reign of Louis XII, the white Coronata inspired a man of letters from Marseilles to write, "This is a wine that can turn an ordinary glass into a golden goblet."Coronata grapes used to be produced in the vineyards surrounding the ancient village of Coronata, which towers over the sea at the southernmost tip of Genoa. The wine obtained from these grapes has a pale yellow color and a dry, fresh flavor which some say recalls that of Rhine whites. Nowadays, most all of the area where these vines were once planted is covered with factories, making the Coronata wine a rarity. But during the Crusades, the ships that left Genoa for the Holy Land reportedly carried great supplies of the wine for homesick Genoese crusaders in faraway lands.
As the vineyards around Coronata were replaced with factories, winegrowers moved to the hinterland district of Val Polcevera, where they produce a wine that has the same characteristics of the ancient Coronata. In 1999, the Val Polcevera obtained a D.O.C. appellation, with Coronata as a subcategory reserved only for the very limited quantity of wine that is still made in the old village.
