Italian Wine regions: The Complete Guide to Italy’s Greatest Wines

Italy is one of the oldest and most complex wine-producing countries in the world. With 20 regions, over 350 authorized grape varieties, and more than 500 DOC and DOCG appellations, no other wine country offers quite the same depth or the same sense of discovery.

I have been leading wine tours in Tuscany from Florence for many years now, but my love of Italian wine has always taken me far beyond the Chianti hills. Over time, I have visited producers in Piedmont and the Veneto, attended wine conferences in Sicily, explored the cellars of Umbria, and driven through the gypsum hills of Emilia-Romagna to reach a winery that most people will never find on their own.

What I have learned from all of these journeys is that Italian wine is never just wine. It is always also a place, a person, and a story. This guide is my attempt to share some of those stories, alongside the facts, the grapes, and the denominations, so that you arrive at your first Italian wine tasting not just informed, but curious.

Tuscany: The Soul of Italian Wine

If Italy is the world’s most fascinating wine country, Tuscany is its beating heart. No other region has shaped the global image of Italian wine quite like this one. The rolling hills between Florence and Siena, the cypress-lined roads, the medieval hilltowns, the ancient cellars carved into tufa rock, all of this is inseparable from the wine itself.

Tuscany produces some of the most celebrated wines in the world, most of them built around a single grape: Sangiovese. Thin-skinned, high in acidity, sensitive to altitude and soil, Sangiovese expresses itself differently depending on where it grows, which is why Tuscan wine is never one thing. It is a conversation between a grape and a landscape that has been going on for centuries.

The Chianti Classico Zone: Between Florence and Siena

The most famous wine area in Tuscany, arguably in all of Italy, lies in the hills between Florence and Siena. This is the Chianti Classico zone, a DOCG appellation that requires a minimum of 80% Sangiovese and covers around 7,200 hectares of vineyards.

What makes Chianti Classico distinctive is its terroir: galestro (a fragile, mineral-rich schist), alberese (hard clay and limestone), and varying altitudes between 250 and 650 meters above sea level. The result is a wine of real structure: dark cherry, dried herbs, leather, earthy minerality, with the backbone to age for years or decades.

In 2014, a new tier was introduced: Gran Selezione, the top expression of Chianti Classico, produced only from a single vineyard or best lots and aged at least 30 months. It sits above Chianti Classico Riserva and represents the producer’s finest offering.

The historic symbol of the Chianti Classico Consortium is the Black Rooster (Gallo Nero), a medieval emblem with roots in a famous story about a race between Florence and Siena to define the border of their territories. You’ll find it on the neck label of every certified bottle.

Key villages to know:

• Greve in Chianti: the informal capital of the zone, with a beautiful arcaded piazza and excellent wine shops
• Panzano in Chianti: home to some of the most celebrated producers in the region
• Radda in Chianti: a perfectly preserved medieval hilltop village at high altitude
• Gaiole in Chianti: known for elegant, long-lived wines from cooler vineyards
• Castelnuovo Berardenga: the southernmost commune, producing fuller-bodied, warmer wines

Greve in Chianti deserves a special mention, not just as the informal capital of the zone, with its beautiful arcaded piazza and excellent wine shops, but as a place with a remarkable history. The statue in the centre of the piazza is of Giovanni da Verrazano, born in the Chianti hills and the first European explorer to sail into what is now New York Harbor. The Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge that connects Brooklyn to Staten Island is named after him. And Amerigo Vespucci, the explorer after whom the entire continent of America takes its name, had family ties to Greve as well. Not bad for a small Tuscan wine town.

Greve in Chianti’s central piazza during the annual wine festival, the statue of Giovanni da Verrazzano, born in these hills, looks out over the Gallo Nero flags and wine stands. The explorer who discovered New York Harbor grew up in Chianti country.

If you want to experience Chianti Classico in depth, the best way is always to visit the wineries directly. On our Chianti wine tours from Florence, we take you to small family-run estates where you can taste the difference between a Chianti Classico, a Riserva, and a Gran Selezione in the same cellar where they were made.

Chianti Colli Fiorentini: The Wine Closest to Florence

Just outside the city gates of Florence, the hills begin. And those hills have been producing wine for centuries. Wine that once arrived in Florence by oxcart, filled the cellars of noble palaces, and was sold glass by glass through the small stone openings known as buchette del vino (wine windows) still visible today in the historic center.

This is the territory of Chianti Colli Fiorentini, one of the historic subzones of the broader Chianti denomination. The appellation surrounds Florence on nearly every side, stretching across the municipalities of Impruneta, Bagno a Ripoli, Tavarnelle Val di Pesa, and Barberino Val d’Elsa. Geographically, it acts as a natural bridge between the city and the deeper Chianti Classico countryside.

The wines of Colli Fiorentini are based primarily on Sangiovese, but tend to be lighter in body and fresher in character than Chianti Classico. They are not built for decades in the cellar, they are built for the table, to be opened with friends, poured alongside bread and olive oil, enjoyed as part of daily Florentine life. This is wine in its original role: convivial, approachable, close to the food.

On our wine tours from Florence, we often begin in the city stopping at a wine window, reading the stones of the old palaces and then drive twenty minutes into the countryside to visit small Colli Fiorentini estates. The transition is shorter than you’d expect, and it puts everything you’ve seen in Florence into context.

Brunello di Montalcino: Tuscany’s Greatest Red

South of Siena, on a single isolated hilltop town surrounded by vineyards, grows what many consider Italy’s greatest red wine: Brunello di Montalcino.

Montalcino sits at around 564 meters above sea level, surrounded by a natural amphitheater of hills that protects the vineyards from cold northern winds while exposing them to sea breezes from the Tyrrhenian coast. The result is a warm, dry microclimate, ideal for ripening Brunello, the local clone of Sangiovese with an unusually thick skin and high tannin content.

Brunello di Montalcino DOCG requires:

• 100% Sangiovese Grosso (Brunello)
• Minimum 5 years of aging before release (6 for Riserva), including at least 2 years in oak and 4 months in bottle
• Bottle aging contributes to the wine’s legendary longevity — great vintages can evolve for 30 years or more

The wines are powerful and austere when young: deep garnet in color, with notes of dried cherry, tobacco, leather, and earth, but open into something extraordinary with time. Rosso di Montalcino, made from the same grape but with much shorter aging requirements, is the more approachable, earlier-drinking sibling.

Key producers to know include Biondi-Santi (the historic estate credited with creating Brunello), Casanova di Neri, though the area is full of exceptional small producers. One of them is Giacomo of Il Cocco, a small winery we have been working with since 2006 and one of our favourite stops on our Montalcino wine tours.

Giacomo in the cellar of Il Cocco, Montalcino, one of the small, passionate producers who make Brunello so extraordinary. We have been bringing guests here since 2006.

We offer dedicated Montalcino wine tours that take you deep into this extraordinary territory.

Vino Nobile di Montepulciano: Renaissance Wine

Do not confuse it with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, a completely different wine from a different region. Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is a Tuscan DOCG produced in the hills around the beautiful Renaissance town of Montepulciano, in the Val di Chiana.

Here, Sangiovese is known locally as Prugnolo Gentile, and it produces wines of remarkable elegance, smoother and more perfumed than Brunello, with notes of plum, violets, and spice. The DOCG requires at least 70% Prugnolo Gentile and a minimum of 2 years of aging (3 for Riserva).

Montepulciano itself is one of the most beautiful hilltowns in Tuscany, with a stunning central piazza, Renaissance palaces, and wine cellars carved directly into the volcanic tufa beneath the streets. Visiting here is as much a cultural experience as a wine one.

One of the historic underground cellars of Montepulciano — carved into the volcanic tufa beneath the town, with large oak casks aging Vino Nobile di Montepulciano DOCG. Visiting these cellars is as much a cultural experience as a wine one.

Our Montepulciano wine tour combines winery visits with a walk through the historic town, highly recommended for anyone who loves both wine and history.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano: Tuscany’s White Wine Gem

In the land of red wines, Vernaccia di San Gimignano stands apart: it’s the only Tuscan white wine with DOCG status, and one of the oldest named wines in Italian history. Documents from the 13th century already mention Vernaccia being sold in San Gimignano, making it arguably Italy’s first documented wine.

The grape is native to the area and produces a wine of real character: dry, mineral, with notes of white flowers, almonds, and a distinctive bitter finish. At its best, from producers who limit yields and use some barrel aging, Vernaccia can rival the best white wines of central Italy.

San Gimignano itself is unmissable: a medieval hilltop town famous for its 14 surviving towers (originally there were 72), with views over the Val d’Elsa that seem to belong to another century entirely. We include San Gimignano in several of our Tuscany wine tours.

Bolgheri and the Super Tuscans

In the 1970s and 1980s, a group of Tuscan winemakers did something radical. Frustrated by the rigid DOC regulations of the time, which required white grapes in Chianti blends and forbade international varieties, they began experimenting with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah in the coastal hills of Bolgheri, south of Livorno.

The result was the Super Tuscans: wines that fell outside the official classification system but immediately captured the attention of international critics and collectors. The most famous of them all, Sassicaia, a Cabernet Sauvignon-based wine from the Tenuta San Guido, was ranked among the world’s greatest wines by Wine Spectator as early as 1985.

Today, Bolgheri has its own DOC, and the Super Tuscan category has expanded across the region. Other iconic names include Ornellaia, Masseto (Italy’s most famous Merlot), and Tignanello (the first blend of Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon). These are wines that changed the way the world thinks about Italian wine.

The coastal Maremma area, of which Bolgheri is a part, is also the setting for our 4-Day Etruscan Wine Tour in Maremma, which explores this wilder, less-visited side of Tuscany.

Grattamacco: A Bolgheri Pioneer

Grattamacco is one of the original Bolgheri estates, founded in the late 1970s, it was among the first producers to prove that this coastal strip of Tuscany could produce world-class wine. I visited for a tasting, and what made the deepest impression was a bottle they brought out from the cellar: a 1982 Grattamacco, labelled simply Vino da Tavola di Castagneto. At the time, no DOC existed for Bolgheri. These wines were classified as ordinary table wine because the regulations had no category for what they were doing. That battered, beautiful label tells the whole story of the Super Tuscan revolution.

A bottle of Grattamacco 1982, labelled “Vino da Tavola di Castagneto” because no DOC existed yet for Bolgheri. One of the pioneering Super Tuscans, before the world knew what to call them.

Today Grattamacco produces a Bolgheri Rosso and the flagship Grattamacco Bolgheri Superiore: a Cabernet Sauvignon-led blend that has earned its place among the great wines of the coast.

Grattamacco Bolgheri Rosso 2016 and Bolgheri Superiore 2011, forty years on from that first vino da tavola, the wines that put Bolgheri on the world map.

Morellino di Scansano: The Maremma’s Hidden Gem

Further south in the Maremma, the towns of Scansano and Sorano give their name to Morellino di Scansano, a DOCG red wine made from Sangiovese (here called Morellino) grown in the volcanic soils of the Grosseto hills.

These are warmer, more Mediterranean conditions than northern Tuscany. The wines tend to be fuller, fruitier, and more immediately drinkable, with notes of ripe cherry, wild herbs, and a hint of smoke from the volcanic soil. Morellino DOCG requires a minimum of 85% Sangiovese and offers excellent value compared to better-known Tuscan denominations.

Sassotondo: A Cellar Carved into the Tufa at Sorano

One of the most extraordinary winery visits I have made in Tuscany was not in Chianti or Montalcino, but in the deep south of the region, in the ancient Etruscan territory around Sorano, in the Maremma Grossetana. Sassotondo is a small, biodynamic estate producing wine from Ciliegiolo and Sangiovese, with a cellar carved directly into the tufa hillside: a long tunnel of orange and black volcanic rock arching over rows of barriques. Walking into it is like stepping into another century.

The underground cellar at Sassotondo, Sorano, carved into the tufa rock, barriques aging in the cool, mineral silence of the hillside. One of the most atmospheric wine cellars in Tuscany.

The temperature and humidity in these ancient caves are naturally perfect for wine aging, no intervention required. The Etruscans understood this long before modern enology existed.

Vin Santo: Tuscany’s Sacred Wine

No overview of Tuscan wine is complete without Vin Santo, the traditional sweet wine made from late-harvested Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, hung to dry in a fruttaio (drying loft) for months before being fermented and aged for years in small barrels called caratelli. The name means “holy wine,” and it has been part of Tuscan hospitality for centuries, traditionally served with cantucci (hard almond biscuits) for dipping.

Grapes hanging to dry in the fruttaio at Villa Le Corti, San Casciano, estate of the Principi Corsini family. The grapes dry for months before fermentation, concentrating the sugars and flavors that make Vin Santo so unique. Increasingly rare to find made this way.

The name means “holy wine,” and the origins are genuinely medieval: it was used in religious ceremonies, served to guests as a sign of hospitality. True Vin Santo, from producers who still follow the old methods, can be extraordinary: amber-golden in color, with flavors of dried apricot, walnut, honey, and oxidative complexity.

Few producers still follow the traditional method. One of them is Cantina Castelvecchio in San Casciano Val di Pesa, run by Filippo and Stefania, a small family estate where Vin Santo is still made exactly as it always was. On our wine tours, guests are fortunate enough to taste their 2004 vintage, a wine that has been aging in caratelli for years, amber-golden, with flavors of dried apricot, walnut, honey, and a complexity that only time and patience can produce.

Piedmont: Barolo, Barbaresco, and a Summer Road Trip with Friends from Denver and New York

I still remember the first time I drove into the Langhe hills south of Alba. The vines stretched across every hillside as far as the eye could see, the villages sat on their hilltops like sentinels, and even in August the light had a clarity that felt different from Tuscany,  sharper, more northern, more serious.

I was traveling with Dorothy and Ava, two American clients who had been on one of my Chianti tours the previous year and had loved it so much they came back asking for more. That August 2011 trip to Barolo was the beginning of a friendship that has lasted ever since.

 With Dorothy and Ava from Denver and New York, August 2011, tasting Barolo with that extraordinary panorama of the Langhe hills behind us. Clients who become friends: the best part of this work.

We sat on a terrace with Barolo in our glasses and those famous hills rolling away behind us in every direction , vines, villages, a medieval castle on the skyline. It is the kind of view that makes you understand why people have been growing wine here for centuries.

The Village of Barolo and the Enoteca della Posta

One of the most charming things about the Barolo zone is how small and unhurried the villages are. Walking through Barolo village itself  past the Enoteca della Posta, up the cobbled street toward the castle,  you feel completely removed from the modern world. And then you turn a corner and there are the vineyards again, right at the edge of town.

The main street of Barolo village,  the Enoteca della Posta on the left, Nebbiolo vineyards climbing the hill behind. This is a village that lives and breathes its wine.

Barolo: The King of Italian Wine

Barolo DOCG is made from 100% Nebbiolo,  one of Italy’s most demanding and rewarding grape varieties. Nebbiolo is thin-skinned, early-ripening, and fiercely tannic when young, requiring years, sometimes decades, to reveal its full complexity. When it does open up, the aromas are extraordinary: dried roses, tar, tobacco, leather, and truffle.

The five main communes of the Barolo zone each produce wines with a distinct character:

• La Morra: the most perfumed and elegant Barolos, floral and approachable in youth
• Castiglione Falletto: structured and powerful, with firm tannins
• Serralunga d’Alba: the biggest and most austere, built for decades of cellaring
• Barolo village: the historic heart of the appellation
• Verduno: smaller and more delicate, often overlooked but worth seeking out

DOCG regulations require a minimum of 3 years of aging before release (5 for Riserva), at least 18 months in oak. What struck me most visiting Barolo producers was the quiet pride of the winemakers  many of them fourth or fifth generation families working the same hillside vineyards their great-grandparents planted.

We offer Barolo wine tours from Florence for those who want to experience this legendary region with a personal guide.

Barbaresco, Barbera, and Moscato d’Asti

Barbaresco DOCG, from the villages of Barbaresco, Neive, and Treiso, is also made from 100% Nebbiolo but tends to be more accessible in youth slightly lighter, more floral, often described as Barolo’s more graceful counterpart. Barbera d’Asti and Barbera d’Alba are Piedmont’s everyday reds  deeply colored, naturally high in acidity, bursting with red fruit, and one of the best value bottles in all of Italy. And for something completely different, Moscato d’Asti DOCG is low in alcohol (around 5.5%), gently sparkling, and overflowing with notes of apricot, peach blossom, and honey  one of Italy’s most charming wine experiences.

Veneto: Amarone, Valpolicella, and a Spring Visit to Trabucchi d’Illasi

The Veneto is Italy’s most prolific wine region by volume, but it also produces some of the country’s most prestigious and distinctive wines a contradiction that makes sense once you understand how vast and varied this region really is.

I visited the Veneto on a research trip to explore the Valpolicella zone from the inside. One of our stops was Trabucchi d’Illasi, one of the historic family estates of the zone  a beautiful property with cypress trees, a chapel bell tower, and old Corvina vines that the owner walked us through herself, explaining the decisions behind each row. We arrived in early spring, when the vines were still dormant and the light was soft and cool.

With the owner of Trabucchi d’Illasi in the Valpolicella vineyards, early spring  explaining the old Corvina vines still bare after winter. Behind us, the estate chapel and cypress trees. One of the historic family estates of the zone.

Valpolicella, Amarone, and Ripasso

The hills northwest of Verona produce one of Italy’s most compelling wine families, all built from the same three grapes: Corvina, Corvinone, andRondinella. Valpolicella DOC is a light, fresh red with lively acidity and notes of sour cherry and almonds, the everyday wine of this area, made for the table.
But the dried-grape wines are what make this zone truly exceptional. Amarone della Valpolicella DOCG is made by harvesting the grapes in October and laying them on wooden racks to dry (appassimento) for 90 to 120 days. The grapes lose 30–40% of their weight, concentrating everything,  sugar, acid, color, flavor. The resulting wine is fermented to near-dryness, reaching 15–17% alcohol. The flavors are intense and layered: black cherry, chocolate, tobacco, leather, spice. The best examples age magnificently for 20 years or more.
Ripasso Valpolicella is made by re-passing a standard Valpolicella through the leftover skins from Amarone production, extracting additional color, tannins, and complexity. It sits stylistically between Valpolicella and Amarone, and offers exceptional value.
On that research trip, we tasted the full range at Fratelli Vogadori  a family estate with a beautiful tasting room and a lineup that showed exactly how different these wines can be from one another, even made from the same grapes.

At Fratelli Vogadori in Valpolicella  tasting through the full range including their Amarone della Valpolicella. The depth of color in the glass already tells you something extraordinary is inside.

Prosecco: Conegliano and Valdobbiadene

The hills between Conegliano and Valdobbiadene, inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019, are the birthplace of quality Prosecco DOCG. Made from the Glera grape using the Charmat method, the best Prosecco Superiore DOCG from this area especially from the Cartizze sub-zone, the 107-hectare grand cru of Prosecco  has real finesse: delicate bubbles, notes of green apple, white peach, and wisteria, balanced by clean acidity.

Soave

East of Verona, Soave Classico made from Garganega in the volcanic hills around the medieval castle is a wine of real elegance: dry, mineral, with notes of white flowers, almonds, and citrus. Far more interesting than its reputation suggests.

Umbria: Sagrantino and the Green Heart of Italy

Umbria is sometimes called the green heart of Italy, a landlocked region of forests, rivers, and medieval hilltowns. It was on a research trip here that I visited two estates that completely changed my understanding of central Italian wine.

Antonelli San Marco and Terre della Custodia, Montefalco

Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG is made from the Sagrantino grape, grown only around the town of Montefalco in the Spoleto valley. It has the highest polyphenol content of any grape variety in the world deeply dark color, enormous tannins, extraordinary aging potential. When young it can seem almost impenetrable; with ten years in the cellar, it opens into something genuinely profound.
Antonelli San Marco is one of the great family estates of the zone,  their tasting lineup of Grechetto, Montefalco, Rosso, Sagrantino, and passito shows the full range of what this hillside can produce.

At Antonelli San Marco in Montefalco: the full tasting lineup, from Grechetto to Sagrantino di Montefalco DOCG.

Terre della Custodia is a larger, more modern estate nearby,  a beautifully polished Sagrantino in a tasting room that makes you want to slow down and pay attention.

Tasting Sagrantino di Montefalco at Terre della Custodia  that deep, dark ruby in the glass is the first sign of what this wine is capable of. On the western edge of Umbria, Orvieto Classico, made from Grechetto and Trebbiano on volcanic tufa soils,  is one of central Italy’s most historic whites, produced here since Etruscan times.

Orvieto and the White Wines of Umbria

On the western edge of Umbria, perched dramatically on a volcanic tufa cliff, Orvieto produces one of central Italy’s most historic white wines. Orvieto Classico,  made primarily from Grechetto and Trebbiano from the tufa soils of the historic zone,  at its best has a mineral, almost stony character with floral notes and a clean, dry finish. It has been produced here since Etruscan times, and the underground cellars carved into the tufa beneath the town are among the most extraordinary in Italy.

Orvieto perched on its volcanic tufa cliff, seen from the vineyards below in autumn, vines turning gold, the Duomo visible on the skyline. One of the most dramatic wine landscapes in central Italy.

Emilia-Romagna is the region that gave Italy Parmigiano-Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma, mortadella, tortellini, and tagliatelle. It is also the home of Lambrusco, a wine that has been misrepresented for decades by cheap sweetened exports, but in its authentic form is something far more interesting.

Traditional Lambrusco from the area around Modena and Reggio Emilia is a dry or off-dry sparkling red with deep color, vivid acidity, and notes of sour cherry, wild berries, and violets. It is one of the most food-friendly wines in Italy: cut the fat of Parmigiano and prosciutto with its acidity, and you understand immediately why this wine and this cuisine evolved together. The four main DOC denominations are Lambrusco di Sorbara, Lambrusco Grasparossa di Castelvetro, Lambrusco Salamino di Santa Croce, and Lambrusco Reggiano.

In the eastern half of the region, Romagna Sangiovese expresses the grape in a softer, fruitier way than Tuscany, more approachable in youth, with a warmth that reflects the Adriatic influence. From the best producers in the hills around Forlì, Cesena, and Brisighella, Romagna Sangiovese Superiore and Riserva can be genuinely impressive wines.

Cantina Buzaga: A Tasting Among the Calanchi at Brisighella

Brisighella sits in the Vena del Gesso Romagnola, a UNESCO-protected gypsum formation whose pale crystalline rock cuts through the Apennine foothills like a spine, creating an almost lunar landscape of steep eroded gullies called calanchi. I went there with my husband and found Cantina Buzaga, a small producer working right in this extraordinary landscape. We tasted outside, with those dramatic white hills as our backdrop.

Coronilla — Romagna Albana Secco DOCG by Cantina Buzaga, tasted outdoors with the calanchi behind. The pale gypsum hills make this corner of Emilia-Romagna like nowhere else in Italy.

The Coronilla, a Romagna Albana Secco DOCG, was made from the ancient Albana grape: golden, with notes of white peach, apricot, and a mineral finish from those gypsum soils. Albana di Romagna was the first Italian white wine to receive DOCG status, back in 1987.

Colchico — Ravenna Centesimino IGP by Cantina Buzaga. The hand-illustrated labels with wildflowers perfectly capture the spirit of this artisan estate.

The Colchico was a red from Centesimino: a rare indigenous grape grown almost exclusively around Faenza, with a distinctive floral, spicy character: wild red berries, violets, a hint of pepper. Exactly the kind of wine you only find by going off the beaten track.

Campania: Ancient Grapes, Volcanic Soils

Campania, the region around Naples, is one of the most exciting areas of the contemporary Italian wine renaissance. Its most important wines are built on ancient native grapes that have survived here since Greek and Roman antiquity — varieties that produce wines unlike anything else in Italy.

Taurasi: The Barolo of the South

Taurasi DOCG, produced in the hills of the Irpinia area east of Naples, is made from Aglianico, a grape of Greek origin whose name may derive from Hellenico (Greek). The wines are powerful, deeply tannic, and mineral, with notes of dark cherry, tobacco, iron, and volcanic earth. Taurasi requires 3 years of aging (4 for Riserva) and is one of Italy’s longest-lived red wines. The great producer Mastroberardino was largely responsible for preserving and promoting Aglianico after the devastation of phylloxera.

Greco di Tufo and Fiano di Avellino

Two white DOCG wines from the same Irpinia hills represent some of Italy’s finest white wine production. Greco di Tufo is made from the ancient Greco variety on tufa soils: mineral, structured, with notes of white peach, citrus, and a smoky, almost petrol-like complexity with age. Fiano di Avellino is arguably even finer: aromatic, with notes of hazelnuts, honey, wildflowers, and a remarkable ability to age for 10 years or more.

Sicily: A Wine Conference, a Volcano, and a Tasting at the Edge of the World

In March 2017, I attended the International Wine Tourism Conference held in Sicily, one of those events that brings together producers, sommeliers, tour operators, and wine lovers from across the globe. I was there with Claudia, one of my guides, and we combined the conference sessions with winery visits that took us deep into territory I had never explored before.

What struck me most about Sicily was the sheer drama of it: the light, the volcanic landscape, the ancient vines, the sense that wine has been made here for so long that it is simply part of the island’s DNA.

Cantina Mannino di Placo, Castiglione di Sicilia

One of the most memorable visits of the entire trip was to Cantina Mannino di Placo in Castiglione di Sicilia, on the northern slopes of Etna. It is the kind of place that reminds you why wine tourism is worth doing: a small, family-run estate surrounded by ancient lava stone walls, old alberello vines, and a view of the volcano that changes by the minute as the clouds move across the mountain.

With Claudia at Cantina Mannino di Placo, Castiglione di Sicilia, March 2017 — tasting Etna wines outdoors on a beautiful spring day, with the volcano and the valley behind us. The bottles on the old tree stump made the perfect table.

We tasted outside, on a spring afternoon that was warm enough for sunglasses, the wine poured on an ancient tree stump that served as a perfectly improvised table. The Etna Bianco was extraordinary, mineral, tense, electric, and the Nerello Mascalese had that haunting quality that makes Etna wines so hard to forget.

Etna: The Volcano’s Gift to Wine

The vineyards on the slopes of Mount Etna are one of the wine world’s great recent revelations. At altitudes between 500 and 1,000 meters on volcanic basalt soils, the Nerello Mascalese grape produces red wines of haunting elegance: light in color but intense in flavor, with notes of red cherry, blood orange, volcanic ash, and minerals. White wines from Carricante are equally compelling.

The view from Cottanera’s tasting room in Castiglione di Sicilia: Etna’s snow-capped summit visible through the window, vineyards in perfect rows on volcanic soil below. One of the most dramatic wine views in Italy.

We also visited Cottanera, a larger estate on the same slopes, with a beautifully designed tasting room whose picture window frames the volcano perfectly: rows of vines in the foreground, Etna’s snow-capped cone in the distance. It is the kind of view that becomes part of how you remember the wine.

The Etna DOC has numerous contrade (single-vineyard sites) increasingly compared to Burgundy in their terroir expression. Winemakers from France, California, and across Italy have invested here in recent years, drawn by the ancient vines, some over 100 years old and ungrafted, by the dramatic landscape, and by the singular quality of the wines.

Nero d’Avola and the Wines of Southern Sicily

Sicily’s most famous red grape, Nero d’Avola, grows best in the southeastern corner of the island around the town of Avola. It produces rich, full-bodied wines with notes of black cherry, chocolate, and Mediterranean scrub, one of Italy’s most internationally recognized native varieties.

Passito di Pantelleria

Passito di Pantelleria, the legendary sweet wine from the tiny volcanic island of Pantelleria, is made from sun-dried Zibibbo (Muscat of Alexandria) grapes. The result is amber, viscous, and extraordinary: concentrated apricot, fig, honey, and caramel, with a finish that seems to last for minutes. One of Italy’s greatest dessert wines, and one of the most memorable bottles I have ever opened.

Lazio: Frascati, the Castelli Romani, and a Tour That Was Never Born

In 2010, I was seriously considering adding Rome-based wine tours to my program. I drove through the Castelli Romani, the volcanic hills southeast of Rome, visiting producers, eating at local osterie, and trying to understand whether the wines could support the kind of experience I was imagining.

The answer, I concluded, was: not quite yet. I decided to stay focused on Florence. But the trip itself was wonderful, and the area has changed significantly in the years since.

Frascati and the Castelli Romani

The volcanic hills southeast of Rome produce white wines primarily from Malvasia and Trebbiano. Frascati is the best known, and at its best, from old Malvasia Puntinata vines, it has a nutty, floral complexity that pairs beautifully with Roman antipasti. It has been the wine of Rome for centuries, consumed in the city’s fraschette (informal wine taverns) long before formal restaurant culture existed.

Cantina Minardi: Frascati as It Used to Be

One of the most memorable stops on that 2010 research trip was Cantina Minardi in Frascati: a small family estate with an underground cantina carved directly into the volcanic tufo. Inside, lit only by torchlight, an extraordinary collection of enormous antique glass damigiane (demijohns) lined the walls of the tunnel, so old and blackened they looked as though they had been sitting there since the Roman Empire.

The underground tufo cellar at Cantina Minardi, Frascati : ancient glass demijohns in the dark, some dating back generations. One of the most atmospheric wine cellars I have visited in Italy.

This is Frascati at its most authentic, not the industrial version exported in bulk, but a living wine culture rooted in volcanic soil and centuries of tradition.

Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone

One of Italy’s most famous wine legends comes from Montefiascone, north of Rome on the shores of Lake Bolsena. According to the story, a bishop traveling to Rome in the 12th century sent his servant ahead to mark the best wines along the road with the Latin word Est (“it is here”). The wine at Montefiascone was apparently so exceptional that the servant wrote Est! Est!! Est!!! and the bishop drank so much of it that he never reached Rome.

The wine, made from Trebbiano and Malvasia grapes, still carries this extraordinary name today and is one of Italy’s most storied DOC wines.

Calabria and Sardegna: The Deep South’s Hidden Wines

Calabria, the toe of Italy’s boot, is home to Cirò, one of Italy’s oldest wine names, made from the indigenous Gaglioppo grape on the Ionian coast. These wines are rustic, tannic, and deeply colored, often underestimated, but capable of real complexity from older vines on clay limestone soils.

Sardegna (Sardinia) is an island with a completely distinct wine culture, shaped by Spanish influence (the island was under Aragonese rule for centuries) and ancient indigenous varieties. Cannonau di Sardegna, the local name for Grenache, is a rich, powerful red wine that some researchers have connected to the island’s notably high concentration of centenarians (though the relationship is contested). Vermentino di Sardegna and Vermentino di Gallura DOCG are fresh, aromatic whites with notes of citrus, herbs, and a characteristic almond finish.

Abruzzo: Montepulciano and Trebbiano

Abruzzo sits between the Apennines and the Adriatic, and its wines are defined by two grapes: Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (completely unrelated to the Tuscan town of Montepulciano, here Montepulciano is the grape, not the place) produces deeply colored, full-bodied reds with notes of ripe dark fruit, herbs, and earthy tannins. At its best, from the Colline Teramane DOCG zone, it is a serious wine. Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, particularly from producers like Valentini, produces white wines of extraordinary longevity and complexity, some of Italy’s greatest whites, largely unknown to the international market.

Planning Your Italian Wine Journey

Italy’s wine regions are best understood not through reading, but through experience, through the act of standing in a vineyard, tasting wine from the barrel, talking to a producer about the decisions they made that year, and then sitting down to eat the local food alongside the local wine.

If your journey begins in Florence, as it does for many visitors to Italy, you are already at the heart of the country’s greatest wine region. The hills of Chianti, Montalcino, and Montepulciano are within easy reach. Small family estates receive guests, pour generously, and tell stories that no wine book can fully capture.

We would love to be your guide. Explore our range of wine tours from Florence, from half-day group excursions to multi-day private journeys across the whole of Tuscany and beyond, with our 7-Day Italy Wine Tour covering the country’s most important regions from north to south.

Every sip tells a story. Italy has more stories than anywhere else.

Written by Angela Saltafuori Licensed Tour Operator, Florence. Wine guide and founder

of Tuscany Tour Time.