Italian wine regions

Each region has its wine, sometimes top wine. This is what happens in Italy where each area is famous for something. Lately, in the rank of Italian wine regions, five are at the main producers: Tuscany, Veneto, Piedmont, Emilia Romagna, Abruzzi.

Tuscany

Tuscany is one of the regions most appreciated by wine lovers from everywhere in the world. The king of wines, Chianti, is produced on the hills between Florence and Siena. However the region has many areas of wine production for Brunello di Montalcino, Nobile di Montepulciano, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, Morellino di Scansano, Montecarlo di Toscana and others.

North-Middle Italy

Veneto has sixteen wine routes among which Lison-Pramaggiore, Prosecco and Valpolicella, where Amarone wine is produced.

If you say Barolo, Barbera and Moscato you think about Piedmont. Likewise Lambrusco, Sangiovese di Romagna and Albana are the most popular wines produced in Emilia Romagna, while Abruzzi is famous for Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Cerasuolo and Trebbiano d’Abruzzo.

South Italy

Other regions such as Calabria, Sardegna, Campania and Puglia produce good wines too. As well as the small region Basilicata famous for the Aglianico del Vulture.

Among Italian wine regions we find Sicily too with its Passito di Pantelleria, a strong sweet wine. There are  legends link to many Italian wine regions in facts according to the legend, the goddess Tanit exchanged ambrosia with Pantelleria wine and could conquer Apollo.

In Lazio there is the one of Est Est Est di Montefiascone, an Italian white wine. In the Middle Ages the bishop Johannes Defuk, wine lover, travelling toward Rome, used to send ahead his servant Martino to discover new good wines. He had just to write “Est” – okay – near the tavern door. Once arrived in Montefiascone, Martino found such a good wine that he wrote Est Est Est.

Very very very good!

Some well-known writers in the past appreciated, among other wines, Moscadello di Montalcino, a white sparkling sweet Tuscan wine produced in the Sienese country: in 1540 Pietro l’Aretino and in 1812, during his stay in Florence, the poet Ugo Foscolo.

Later in the Seventeenth century, pope Urbano VIII asked for Moscadello for himself and his court. Montalcino is famous for Brunello, but for centuries Moscadello was number one.

Moreover, in 1685 Francesco Redi composed “Bacco in Tuscany”, a poem devoted to the best Tuscan wines.

Among the Italian wine regions, Tuscany offers many wine routes. One of the most exciting is the Chianti itinerary that winds between villages and vineyards. Travellers who want to find out the secrets of wine can get a wine tasting tour around the spectacular Chianti hills.