Italy's best white-wine region revisited. A rather shorter version of this article is published by the Financial Times.
We tend to think of Italy as red-wine country but I come across more and more Italian whites that are truly eye-opening – in a good way. And, given the global trend from red to white and rosé, that could be good for Italy.
Scrolling northwards from the south coast of Sicily, I’m thinking of the tense, long-lived Etna whites based on the Carricante grape, smouldering like the volcano. Then there are Sardinia’s golden wines based on a grape, Vermentino, that has proved so popular outside Italy, especially in southern France, that the Italians have forbidden non-Italian wine producers to use the name Vermentino. Since late 2022 the French have had to use the less well-known French name Rolle.
In the hinterland of Naples is an array of distinctive pale-skinned grape varieties. Fiano di Avellino, another volcanic product, has such obvious qualities that Fiano has enthusiastically been imported into Australia. Leafy Falanghina is another local variety with unique flavours – very much not just a bland dry white. Then there is host of southern Italian white wine grapes called Greco, as distinct from the Grechetto of central Italy, each of them capable of making distinctly tangy white wines of interest.
On the east coast, in the Marche region on the Adriatic, is the land of Verdicchio, which is so much better than its widespread reputation. It can make wines of real density, character and longevity. I’ve enjoyed 15-year-old unoaked Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi grown in the hinterland of Ancona. Trebbiano d’Abruzzo, a speciality grown to the south of here that has nothing to do with most wines labelled Trebbiano, is so hauntingly good it can cost well over £100 a bottle.
North-west Italy can boast floral, often quite light, varietals such as Moscato, Arneis, the Cortese of Gavi and variations on Vermentino. Soave is probably the most famous north Italian white and producers such as Pieropan and Inama manage to coax seriously interesting dry essences of almonds and citrus from the hillier vineyards there. Lugana and Bianco di Custoza are grown nearby.
In the far north-east, on the border with Slovenia, Friuli was the first Italian wine region to be famous for fresh, modern, varietal whites and enjoyed a heyday in the 1990s. But the white-wine region that has really taken over the Italian white-wine crown is Alto Adige, the narrow valley that leads up to the alps via Bolzano, overlooked by the Dolomites to the east. The scenery is spectacular, if you can ignore the trucks heading to or from the Tyrol. In fact the alternative name for Alto Adige is Südtirol and locals are as likely to speak German as Italian.
Vines cling to steep hillsides at elevations that vary enormously, and unusually, from around 200 m (650 ft) on the valley floor as high as 1,000 m (3,300 ft), twice as high as the elevation often cited as the maximum for effective viticulture. Aspect can be just as crucial as elevation, and there is such a long tradition of growing grapes (and apples) here that local farmers are skilful at making the most of local conditions. Pergolas of overhead vines, especially for the dominant local red wine grape Schiava (of which Walter is such a fan), are a common sight.
But 65% of Alto Adige wines are white and mostly labelled with the name of a grape variety. Unusually, Pinot Blanc (Pinot Bianco in Italian, Weissburgunder in German) is king here. In Alsace, for instance, the variety is regarded as a workhorse. In Austria and Germany Weissburgunder has its fans but it’s surely at its best in subalpine – or should that be subdolomitic? – Alto Adige.
I must confess that when I went to a tasting of Alto Adige wines in London last autumn, it had been so long since I’d been in the region that I’d completely forgotten the supremacy of Pinot Bianco, but time and again, that was the wine that won my heart. Not that there weren’t some impressive Rieslings and Sauvignon Blancs, and the odd Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay that were obviously superior to many examples of these grapes. This is also one of the very few regions of Italy that can lay claim to making a decent Pinot Noir, especially the Mazon vineyard, although even that is becoming dangerously warm for such a fragile red wine grape.
Summer days in Alto Adige can be extremely hot, but higher vineyards cool down quite substantially at night, which keeps fruit fresh. And one of the qualities of the white wines grown here is their ability to age.
In other parts of the wine world, co-ops are sometimes associated with mediocrity, but here, where the average grower’s vineyard holding is only about a hectare (2.5 acres), far too small to subsidise a winery, 70% of the wine is made at one of the co-ops, many with worldwide reputations. The Terlano/Terlan co-op, for instance, is so proud of how well its white wines age that it invited prominent wine writers from around the globe to Bordeaux in November to taste wines back to 1955. I’m not sure many Bordeaux châteaux would have had such confidence.
The only co-ops represented at the London tasting were those of Cortaccia/Kurtatsch north of Trento at the southern end, Nals Margreid and Merano/Meran at the northern end of the main narrow valley with vineyards in the Venosta Valley that nudges up towards the border with Austria. My favourite Kurtatsch wine was the Kofl Sauvignon Blanc 2022, just one of many single-vineyard offerings. Cantina Merano also showed an impressive Sauvignon Blanc 2023 from the cool, north-facing Graf vineyard but its Graf Pinot Bianco 2023 will outlive it, throughout this decade at least. I was assured by Manfred Wohlgemuth of Cantina Merano that harvest time in the area was, for the locals, ‘nearly a festival – really!’
One of the most impressive individual producers was Baron Longo, which may sound a bit like a pantomime character but shouldn’t. Anton Baron Longo has taken an old family estate in hand – his father founded the local co-op – and it is now certified biodynamic. Josef Seebacher of the 700-year-old Tenuta Kornell assured me they too are 100% biodynamic, but not certified.
The Bolzano winery Eberlehof introduced me to a local grape variety speciality, always a thrill, especially when it truly is distinctive. In this case it was Bolzano’s pale-skinned Blatterle, which tastes just like quince.
From what I have written so far, you may think this is an isolated, introvert region but Florian Gojer of Franz Gojer – Glögglhof, for instance, gained experience both in Germany and at Au Bon Climat in California. And Klaus Schroffenegger, showing the exceptional wines of Hoch Klaus, worked at Ornellaia in Bolgheri, Domaine Georges Vernay in Condrieu, Château Latour and a range of Australian wineries before returning to the family winery above Bolzano in 2020. He’s a big fan of ageing in amphorae and has started the organic certification process. His Mitterberg Pinot Bianco Amphora 2021 was my top-scoring wine of the whole tasting. But since he is determined to give his wines extended ageing, with 2021 the current vintage, they are not cheap.
I recommend anyone looking for mountain-fresh whites – packed with distinctive fruit but not oak – to check out Alto Adige.
Recommended Alto Adige whites
These wines are still too rare in the UK so I have given some US stockists, too.
Piccozza Pinot Bianco 2023 13.5%
£12 Tesco, £12.99 Waitrose Cellar
Cantina Kurtatsch Pinot Bianco 2023 13.5%
£17.15 Haynes Hanson & Clark
The 2020 is available from $19.99 in the US
Nals Margreid, Punggl Pinot Grigio 2022 14.5%
£25.95 NY Wines, £26 WoodWinters
$27.99 MacArthur Beverages, $29.99 Wine.com
Franz Gojer – Glögglhof, Karneid Pinot Bianco 2023 13.5%
$31 Liner & Elsen
Nals Margreid, Sirmian Pinot Bianco 2022 14.5%
£38.50 NY Wines
$42.99 MacArthur Beverages, $45.99 Wine.com
For tasting notes, scores and suggested drinking dates see our tasting notes database, and especially my recent Alto Adige tasting article. For international stockists, including many in mainland Europe, see Wine-Searcher.com. See also all our articles about Alto Adige.
The image above of Lake Caldaro in Oltradige in the south of the region is copyright Alto Adige Wine/Benjamin Pfitscher.