Italian Wine Guide: Explore the 20 Wine Regions of Italy

The arrival of the Mycenaen Greeks in Italy marked the beginning of organized viticulture and had become an established practice by 800 BC. Casual winemaking had already existed for centuries, thanks to the ideal growing conditions that encouraged native vines to flourish so easily (which moved the Greeks to nickname the region Oenotria, the “land of wine”). By the second century BC, winemaking so dominated the country’s focus that laws were passed to restrict the number of vineyards in order to grow more food. Trade with nearby regions was constant and fraught, as Roman law even went so far as to forbid viticulture outside of Italy.

Throughout the Middle Ages, wine’s religious significance to the increasingly Catholic country sped its development and experimentation, building upon a sterling reputation for diverse, quality wines. Then, the phylloxera epidemic struck Europe in the late nineteenth century, destroying the bulk of Italy’s many vineyards. Unsurprisingly, recovery efforts were primarily focused on quantity over quality, which ultimately led to decades of unremarkable wine. Up until the mid-twentieth century, the focus of Italian winemaking remained on cheap table wines produced by farmers around the country. The wines were generally light, and in many cases would be regarded today as being flawed and oxidized easily.

The first seeds of change were planted in the ‘60s when the Italian government introduced the DOC appellation system we know today. This also coincided with the introduction of various modern winemaking techniques such as fermentation in stainless steel vats. In the last decade or so, the indigenous grape varieties that formed Italy’s earliest reputation have seen a resurgence, and winemakers have sought to rediscover their lost wine heritage while capitalizing on modern innovation.

Known for its rich wine heritage, Italy is the birthplace of 20 wine-growing regions that produce some of the finest wines in the world.

1. 1. Aosta Valley. The Aosta Valley in Northwest Italy is the country’s smallest winemaking region with the highest overall elevation. In Valdigne, the northernmost tip of the region, grapes are grown on very steep slopes nearly 4,000 feet above sea level. The Central Valley is the most productive, producing many different styles and blends; the Lower Valley favors Nebbiolo-dominant wines in two distinct styles. Most of the area’s limited production has traditionally been devoted to red wine made from pinot noir, gamay, Nebbiolo, and petit rouge grapes, but recently, white wines made with an indigenous grape, Prié blanc—one of the oldest varietals grown exclusively in the area that thrives at high elevations—have begun to appear more frequently.
2. 2. Piemonte (Piedmont). Directly below the Aosta Valley lies the Piemonte region, known for its production of Nebbiolo and Barbera grapes and focus on Barolo and Barbaresco wines. In Piemonte, winemaking is concentrated in three main provinces: Cuneo, Alessandria, and Asti, perhaps best known for producing Asti spumante, a sparkling wine made with Moscato.
   
3. 3. Liguria. Situated along the Italian Riviera, Liguria is best known for the DOC (Denominazione di origine controllata) bottles produced in the five cliffside villages of Cinque Terre—white wines featuring Bosco, Albarola, and Vermentino grapes. Red wine made with Rossesse, an indigenous grape, is produced in the western area of the region, Dolceacqua. (Rossesse is known as Tibouren in neighboring Provence, France, where it is also used to make rosé.)
4. 4. Lombardia (Lombardy). Home to the fashion capital of Milan, northern, alpine Lombardia produces more than its fair share of wine: The region, first settled by the Ancient Greeks, holds 21 DOC designations, 5 DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, the strictest and rarest of the bunch) designations, and 15 IGT (Indicazione Geografica Tipica, which celebrates individual localities) designations. Known best for its sparkling wines like Franciacorta, made from chardonnay, pinot nero, and pinot bianco grapes, Lombardia also produces a range of still wines utilizing Nebbiolo and Verdicchio.
   
5. 5. Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. As the northern Italian winemaking region with the most distinct and lasting Austrian influence, the combined autonomous provinces known as South Tyrol produce wine in the southern Alps using grapes more commonly associated with German winemaking, like Müller-Thurgau, Vernatsch, Sylvaner, Blatterle, Riesling, Gewürztraminer, and Lagrein, which are both indigenous grapes to the region.
6. 6. Friuli-Venezia Giulia. To the northeast lies Friuli-Venezia Giulia, home to some of the world’s most stunning expressions of pinot grigio, with two-thirds of its wine production falling under DOC status. Warm days and cold nights mean longer growing seasons for the terraced grapes in this region, resulting in particularly balanced fruits.
7. 7. Veneto. Alongside Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Veneto completes a collectively renowned group of northern wine regions known as Tre Venezie. With the highest DOC count of the three, Veneto’s contributions to Tre Venezie’s shining global reputation include Prosecco (Glera) and Soave sparkling wines, dessert wines made from Vespaiolo and Moscato grapes, and a grab-bag of red varietals like merlot, carménère, and Rossignola, which is native to the area. It is also home to Valpolicella, which produces Amarone (Italian for “the Great Bitter”): a rich, dry red wine.
8. 8. Emilia-Romagna. As one of Italy’s oldest wine regions, Emilia-Romagna is best known for both its long history producing Lambrusco wines and its geographical diversity, resulting in a vast swath of exemplary terroirs. In addition to Lambrusco, the region grows a fair amount of Sangiovese, Malvasia, Trebbiano, and Barbera, splitting its production evenly between reds and whites.
9. 9. Toscana (Tuscany). A prolific central region that encompasses many notable subregions in their own right, like Chianti (Chianti Classico), Montalcino (home to world-famous Brunello di Montalcino), and Montepulciano, Tuscan wines have long held a reputation for producing some of the best wine in Italy. This wasn’t always the case: The real quantum leap in quality came in the ‘70s, when winemakers in Tuscany were inspired by their visits to Bordeaux and began experimenting with international varieties as well as barriques and extended macerations. They began to believe that Italy could also produce fine wine, and so the Super Tuscan phenomenon was born—bold wines made from blends of Sangiovese with non-native grapes like cabernet sauvignon, and merlot.
10. 10. Marche. Ringed by the Apennine mountains to the west and the Adriatic Sea to the east, Marche is home to two distinct viticultural climates. The area is best known for its white wines made from Trebbiano and Verdicchio grapes, but also produces a small quantity of lighter, fruity reds from primarily Sangiovese and Montepulciano grapes.
11. 11. Umbria. Umbria’s best known historic wine town is Orvieto, a DOC appellation responsible for 80% of the region’s vineyards. The Orvieto DOC concerns the production of white wines, specifically Trebbiano and Grechetto, but Umbria at large does dabble in red wines, too: Mainly, Sagrantino, a highly tannic dark, local grape championed by the town of Montefalco, and Sangiovese, which has seen a recent spike in popularity.
12. 12. Lazio. Rome is the capital city of this central wine region, which like many other central appellations, stakes its reputation on white wines made from Trebbiano and two varieties of Malvasia: Malvasia di Candia and Malvasia Puntinata. Stylistically, many Lazio wines are fresh, bright, and made to drink immediately. Lazio encompasses 27 DOC designations, each bringing a vast array of red and white grape varieties to the table.
13. 13. Sardinia. The island of Sardinia is known for a kind of culinary purity, thanks both to its production of pecorino and its autonomous lifestyle off the western coast of mainland Italy. It has the lowest output of all the regions, and yet more DOC and IGT designations than some of its comparable neighboring regions put together. Its vineyards are filled with mostly French and Spanish grape varietals, including grenache (cannonau), carignan, and cabernet sauvignon, and a handful of more obscure rarely-used grapes, like Monica and Nasco. The result is light-bodied, high-alcohol wines with low acidity and predominantly dark fruit profiles.
14. 14. Abruzzo. Rocky and rugged, almost two-thirds of Abruzzo’s Montepulciano and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo (a local grape venerated by seventeenth-century Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes, among others) production is sold off to other regions for blending. Even after taking that into account, the area still manages to produce 22 million cases of wine a year, making one of its most prolific provinces, Chieti, the fifth largest producer in the country.
15. 15. Molise. Molise was considered a part of Abruzzo until the 1960s, so while independent wine production in this south-central region is relatively young, it did gain two of its own DOCs in the 1980s: Biferno and Pentro di Isernia. Production favors blends, with whites featuring a mix of Trebbiano Toscano and Bombino Bianco—a go-to addition for many blends, with an unobtrusive minerality and light citrus note—and reds featuring Montepulciano and Sangiovese. A native grape, Tintilla, is used to make sparkling wine.
16. 16. Campania. An ancient winemaking stronghold, Campania—and its capital, Naples—is known for its cuisine and production of Falerno, a staple wine from Ancient Rome made with the Aglianico grape, a dark, musty varietal that was introduced by the Greeks and continues to dominate production today. Equally historic white wine grapes Fiano and Greco are popular in Campania, delivering bright, floral acidity.
17. 17. Basilicata. Mountainous Basilicata in southern Italy is relatively under the radar as far as wine production goes, despite having 4 DOCs to its name. Like Campania, it specializes in the cultivation of the Aglianico grape, with most viticulture taking place in the fertile, volcanic soils around Monte Vulture in the northern reach of the area.
18. 18. Puglia (Apulia). As famous for its olives as for its grapes, this southeastern “heel” of Italy is best known for its powerful and bold red wines, made primarily from native negroamaro grapes, which are grown exclusively throughout the region’s main provinces (the Salento peninsula, Bari, Taranto, Lecce, Brindisi, and Foggia). The region is also known for primitivo, known as zinfandel in other parts of the world. The dry heat of Puglia is a perfect setting for deeply ripe fruit.
19. 19. Calabria. The first successful wine production by the ancient Greeks took place in Calabria, a southern peninsula marking a division between the Ionian Sea and Tyrrhenian Sea. The area enjoyed worldwide fame and a stable reputation up until the phylloxera epidemic in the nineteenth century—an infestation of vine-destroying insects that devastated much of the European wine world in one fell swoop—and since then, it has worked to rebuild a modest comeback. Calabrian reds are soft and light-bodied, favoring the Gaglioppo and Greco Nero grapes, both of which reflect the region’s ancient roots.
20. 20. Sicily. As the Mediterranean’s largest island, Sicily has been a notable force in viniculture for centuries. It contains a relatively high number of DOCs, including the slopes of the active volcano Mount Etna. With a reputation built on fortified wines like Marsala and sweeter dessert wines like Moscato di Pantelleria, more modern Sicilian wines have pivoted to a drier style of table wine, backed by grapes like Nero d’Avola, Syrah, and Frappato, an easy-drinking varietal that earned Sicily its first and only DOCG designation in 2005.
    

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