Calabria has the most spectacular scenery but it is not exactly a vinous paradise. This mountainous region on the toe of Italy was never a particularly significant wine producer in terms of either quantity or quality. At the turn of the century the whole region had barely twice as much vineyard as the Chianti Classico zone, for example. But since then Calabrian vine growers have so enthusiastically taken advantage of EU subsidies to rip out vineyards that the region's total area of vines fell by a full 30% to just over 10,000 ha between 2000 and 2013.
Calabria's brightest light...