Italian Whites
How Good are Italian White Wines?
When I started bringing Italian wines to the US in 1994, there was no doubt that the red wines were taken more seriously than the whites. Reds such as Chianti Classico, Brunello di Montalcino, and Barolo were already well-known, and most of the white wines we saw from Italy were commercial examples of everyday wines like Pinot Grigio, Frascati, and Orvieto. (Whites from Friuli were an obvious exception.) I think that the reds really were mostly better than the whites, at that time.
Not any more. Italian white wines have soared in quality in these 30 years, and there are lots more interesting regions and grape varieties. Friuli has been joined by regions such as the Marche, Campania, Sicily, and even Calabria; in other words the north of Italy has been joined by the center and the south. Many of Italy’s most interesting whites are now being grown in the south, in fact, which has been a happy surprise to me. (All credit to Shelley Lindgren, who first drew my attention to the wines of southern Italy at her excellent restaurant in San Francisco, A16.)
You could say that there are two broad types of serious white wines, those that are influenced by wooden barrels and those that are not. In California we are used to many of the the more serious whites being fermented and aged in small barrels, after the model of Chardonnays from the Burgundy region of France, such as Meursault. (Many of these are also subjected to the process called malolactic fermentation, which adds a buttery note.) Almost all good Italian white wines, however, are closer to the wines of Chablis, in that they are not influenced by oak, or by malolactic; they are fermented and aged in neutral containers, such as stainless steel or cement tanks, or even large, neutral wooden barrels. This means that the winemaking flavors are in the background, and the character of the variety, and the place where it’s grown, come to the fore. I really like this kind of white wine.
I drink more good white wine now than I used to. I used to think that white wine was merely an introduction to the red wine that followed, and that an evening without red wine in it was wasted, but now I drink both with at least equal pleasure. Serious white wines go with more of the kind of food I eat these days, too; I don’t eat as much red meat as I used to.
A wide range of grape varieties are used to make Italy’s best white wines, most of them indigenous Italian varieties. For the great part each region has its own, although there are occasional overlaps; sometimes these overlaps have only been revealed recently, with the possibility of DNA analysis (Trebbiano di Lugana, for example, has been shown to be identical to Verdicchio). This range of soil type, climate, and variety means that Italian white wines come in about as many interpretations as you can imagine. A number of excellent white wines come from the volcanic soils of southern Italy (and Soave!). Elevation often helps to produce fresher white wines in the south of Italy, as elevation in effect creates a cooler climate. Some whites are grown at 500-600 meters above sea level, or even higher (on Mount Etna, for example).
Some of my favorite Italian white wines from our selection, in no particular order:
Fiano di Avellino, of which we now have two producers, Ciro Picariello and Laura de Vito. This outstanding white wine type is from Avellino, in the hills just east of Naples. It ages in the bottle brilliantly.
other great Campania white varieties: Greco (made into Greco di Tufo and also Greco Campania) the two Falanghinas (we have examples of both Falanghina Flegrea and Falanghina Beneventana), Caprettone; all sorts of great white wines come from this region now, some from limestone soils and some from volcanic soils. Producers of these wines include Capolino Perlingieri, Ciro Picariello, La Sibilla and Villa Dora.
Verdicchio, a grape that makes wonderful mineral whites in the Marche region. We have three producers, which is probably excessive, but we love this grape. (The producers are Colle Stefano and Tenuta Grimaldi from Matelica, and La Staffa from the Castelli di Jesi.) Good examples can resemble Chenin Blanc, one of my favorite French fine white wine varieties. (Really you could say we have four producers of Verdicchio, as Trebbiano di Lugana is now known to be genetically identical to Verdicchio, so our Lugana producer Marangona should be on the list too.)
Etna! The volcano Mount Etna is now famous for red wines, but in my view the whites might be even better. Both of our Etna Rosso producers (Biondi and Girolamo Russo) also make excellent white wines, and we also have an outstanding specialty producer of whites from the east side of the volcano, Maugeri. Etna Bianco sometimes reminds me of Chablis, another of my favorite French whites. All of these wines are grown in purely volcanic soil, decomposed pumice.
Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Blanc grown in the Alto Adige/South Tyrol region. Some of the world’s best examples of both of these varieties come from this German-speaking area in the far north of Italy. They also grow excellent Riesling and Silvaner up there.
Antonella Lombardo’s white wines from outside the town of Bianco, on the southern coast of Calabria, are extraordinary. Powerful, distinctive, fascinating, great with food.
Great white wine will often age and improve in the bottle, and many Italian white wines do this. Emidio Pepe’s Trebbiano is one of Italy’s finest white wines, and one of the best for aging. The estate periodically releases older vintages in small quantities. Other examples include Etna whites, Fiano di Avellino (and other Campania varieties), the best white wines from Friuli, the Rieslings from Sergio Germano and the Pliger family at Kuenhof, Timorasso from La Colombera in eastern Piedmont, and many others. I’ve only had a few bottles of older Verdicchio, but the best wines certainly improve in the bottle, especially the single vineyard cuvées from the young and talented Riccardo Baldi at La Staffa. Increasing use of alternative closures helps here, of course, as all the alternatives are more consistent than bark corks.
Our selection of Italian white wine producers includes: