(AFP) - It is the rising star of Italian wine, a greeny-gold white starting to earn an international reputation for its distinctive minerally edge and ageing potential.

Yet pecorino, which shares its name with one of Italy's best-known cheeses, might not even exist but for the vision of a trailblazing pioneer fondly remembered by his daughters as being "a little bit crazy".

The late Guido Cocci Griffoni is revered as a hero of Italian viticulture and his native region of Marche for having hauled the ancient grape back from the brink of extinction.

In the early 1980s however, the self-taught winemaker was almost alone in identifying the potential of a varietal now enjoying critical acclaim and commercial success after a four-fold increase in plantings between 2000 and 2011.

"Pecorino is not just a great grape variety; it is also one of Italy's biggest wine success stories of the 21st century," says writer Ian d'Agata, the author of "Native Wine Grapes of Italy".

The grape's name is derived from the Italian word for sheep, "pecora", which are ubiquitous in the hills of central Italy, where both wild and cultivated pecorino vines abounded in the 19th century, providing a ready snack for shepherds.

Things began to change after World War II as rural depopulation emptied mountain villages in Marche and the neighbouring Abruzzo region.

Professional grape growers turned away from pecorino to the higher-yielding but less characterful varieties trebbiano and malvasia, grapes generally destined to be made into non-descript wines by cooperatives lacking Cocci Grifoni's vision.

"Pecorino is not generous in yield terms and, at that time, volume was everything; farmers needed money," explains Marilena Cocci Grifoni, who now runs the estate alongside her winemaker sister Paola.