The region also boasts the coastal climes of Maremma and Bolgheri, the savory whites of Vernaccia di San Gimignano and the nutty, oxidative, sweet Vin Santos produced across Tuscany. However, among devoted wine aficionados its Brunello di Montalcino and Vino Nobile di Montepulciano - as well as Chianti Classico - are more highly regarded. Known for its rolling hills, terracotta-tiled roofs, cypress tree-lined roads and generic Chianti, of course. Emilia-Romagna, meanwhile, has yet to relive the fortunes of the once-favored Lambrusco sparkling wines (although the sparkling red wine style is having something of a revival in some cirlces) despite producing a range of wines worthy of greater attention. In the very northeast, Friulimarks not only the blurred boundary between Italy and the countries of Slovenia and Austria but also hosts both a high-quality, often varietally labeled, wine industry alongside a more cult, minimal intervention wine scene in the likes of Collio Goriziano on the border with Slovenia.Īlpine Trentinoand Valle d'Aosta are similar (although wine production in the Aosta Valley is a tiny 2.1 million liters annually – the smallest region in the country), with cultural and winemaking influences from across the border in Austria and Switzerland respectively as well as boasting something of a cult following.īetween the two, Piedmont should need little introduction (as the picturesque home of Barolo, Barbaresco and Moscato d'Asti, among others, it would be hard to miss in most wine shops and lists) while Lombardyhas a now well-established reputation for sparkling wines, primarily due to the global fortunes of the Champagne-influenced Franciacorta.Īlthough Liguria would appear to have it all – a range of interesting grape varieties (including Vermentino found along the Mediterranean coast into France), a dramatic and highly evocative coastal scenery and small-scale production – it remains rarely seen outside of its domestic market. Similarly, Veneto's vast output (the region made over one billion liters of wine in 2021) of Prosecco, Soave, Valpolicella and varietal Pinot Grigio does little to boost its reputation as a fine wine region, and yet it produces one of the world's richest, finest wines: Amarone della Valpolicella. Some are famous because they are produced in large volumes and can be found all over the world, others because of their consistently high quality. Italy's wine regionsĮach region has its flagship wine styles.
The most significant, when both quality and quantity are taken into consideration, are Tuscany, Piedmont and Veneto. Italy is divided into 20 administrative regions (see right), all of which produce wine, and all of which contain several wine regions. The Italian government's system of wine classification and labeling uses a four-tier quality hierarchy made up of more than 500 DOCG, DOC/DOP and IGT titles. Managing and marketing such a vast wine portfolio is no easy task, particularly in today's highly competitive wine market. It is rivaled in this regard only by France and Spain, and in 2018 the country produced roughly 19 percent of the world's wines. Famous for its bewildering diversity of both grape varieties and wine styles, Italy is also significant for the sheer volume of wine it produces: just over 5.6 billion liters (around 1.5 billion US gallons) in 2018, from 695,000 hectares (1.7 million acres) of vineyards. Italy – the home of Chianti, Barolo, Prosecco, Valpolicella, Soave, Orvieto, Etna – has a rich and diverse wine heritage dating back more than four thousand years. Classic hilltop farm hamlet in the Chianti region of Tuscany | © pixel creator /
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