The shape of Italian wine#
Italy makes more wine than any other country, between 44 and 48 million hectolitres in 2025 depending on who is counting, and grows vines in all twenty of its regions. That is the first thing to know and the least useful, because nobody tours Italy; you tour a hillside. I have chosen four: the Langhe in Piedmont, the Collio in Friuli, the north slope of Etna in Sicily, and the Chianti hills of Tuscany as an extension.
The second thing is that Italian wine is local before it is national. Each of my regions has a grape that grows well almost nowhere else, Nebbiolo, Ribolla Gialla, Nerello Mascalese, Sangiovese, and its own label word for a named vineyard or village: MGA in Barolo and Barbaresco, contrada on Etna, UGA in Chianti Classico. The label system counts 78 DOCG, about 330 DOC and around 120 IGT. I explain it once, on the first evening, and then mostly leave it alone.
The third thing is that Italy keeps both ends of the natural-versus-classic argument on the same hill. In Oslavia, a hamlet of Gorizia, Joško Gravner and the Radikon family put Ribolla back on its skins; twenty minutes away the classic Collio houses press early and bottle clean. On Etna, Frank Cornelissen and the Benanti family farm the same volcano with opposite ideas about the cellar. I pour both, usually at one table, and let the wines make the argument.
A short history in dates#
Greek colonists planted staked vines in Sicily from the eighth century BC and called the south Oenotria, land of trained vines. In 1716 Cosimo III de’ Medici drew a legal boundary around Chianti, one of the first wine delimitations anywhere. In 1784 Joseph II let Carso farmers sell their own wine duty-free for eight days a year, which is why the osmize above Trieste still hang a leafy branch at the lane. Barolo became a dry, age-worthy red in the 1840s, by the traditional account; the Chianti consortium was founded in Radda in 1924.
The rules came late: the DOC system in 1963, Barolo and Barbaresco DOC in 1966, Collio and Etna DOC in 1968, the first DOCGs in 1980. In 1983 Elio Altare of La Morra cut up his old botti for barriques, and the Langhe argued about wood for twenty years. The chapter I actually tour begins in the 1990s: Stanko Radikon’s return to skin fermentation in 1995, Gravner’s first buried qvevri and Cornelissen’s first Etna vintage in 2001, ViniVeri in 2003, VinNatur in 2006.
Grapes: Nebbiolo, Ribolla, Nerello, Sangiovese#
Nebbiolo, neb-BYOH-lo, is pale, late-ripening and unforgiving: rose and tar, high acidity, a long drying tannin that wants years. Barolo must age 38 months before release, 18 of them in wood; Barbaresco 26 months, nine in wood. Barbera and Dolcetto are the weekday reds.
Ribolla Gialla, ree-BOL-la JAL-la, is the thick-skinned white of the Collio. Pressed early it is neutral and brisk; left for months on its skins it turns amber, tannic and saline, with dried apricot and tea. Friulano, called Tocai until 2007, is the everyday white.
Nerello Mascalese, neh-REL-lo mas-ka-LEH-zeh, grows as alberello bushes on chestnut stakes on Etna’s lava terraces, many on their own roots, and gives a pale, high-acid red that writers compare to Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir; Etna Rosso must be at least 80 percent of it. Carricante, the white of Milo on the wet east slope, has searing acidity and salt and ages for decades.
Sangiovese, san-jo-VEH-zeh, is Tuscany: sour cherry, tea leaf, dusty tannin. Chianti Classico must be at least 80 percent Sangiovese, with white grapes banned from the blend since 2006; Brunello di Montalcino is Sangiovese alone.
The regions#
Piedmont: the Langhe#
The Langhe are the hills south of Alba along the Tanaro, at 200 to 500 metres for Barolo and 150 to 400 for Barbaresco. Tortonian marls give La Morra and Barolo perfume and softer tannin; the older Lequio and Diano formations give Serralunga, Monforte and Castiglione Falletto their grip. The autumn fog, nebbia, named the grape. My story about the Vaira family at Vergne, the highest hamlet of the Barolo commune, is a good place to start.
Friuli: the Collio and Oslavia#
The Collio is the arc of hills between Gorizia and Cormons on the Slovenian border; vines sit at 100 to 270 metres on ponca, a crumbling flysch of marl and sandstone, under about 1,500 millimetres of rain a year. Oslavia, four kilometres from Gorizia, is where Gravner’s buried qvevri and Radikon’s open oak vats turned Ribolla amber. Three quarters of an hour away, the Carso limestone plateau above Trieste has Vitovska, Terrano and cellars cut into the rock.
Etna#
Etna is Europe’s most active volcano, about 3,350 metres high, with vineyards in a horseshoe between 450 and over 1,000 metres: the north slope around Randazzo, Passopisciaro and Solicchiata for Nerello, the wet east around Milo for Carricante. Each contrada sits on its own lava flow, which is why the DOC named 133 of them in 2011. Two of my stories sit on opposite sides of the mountain and of the argument: Frank Cornelissen at Solicchiata and the Benanti family at Viagrande.
Tuscany: Chianti Classico#
Chianti Classico lies between Florence and Siena, with vines at 250 to 600 metres on galestro marl, alberese limestone and macigno sandstone around Radda, Panzano, Gaiole, Castellina and Greve; Montalcino, 90 kilometres south, is warmer and grows Brunello. I do not run a scheduled tour here. It works as a two- or three-day extension after Piedmont, about four hours from Alba, or as the spine of a private route from Florence.
Natural and classic in Italy today#
Italy has two national natural-wine associations: ViniVeri, formalised in 2003 by Angiolino Maule, Stanko Radikon and others, with a spring fair at Cerea near Verona, and VinNatur, founded by Maule in 2006, which tests its members’ wines. Many natural producers bottle under an IGT to step outside DOC rules; I ask guests not to read that as a quality statement in either direction.
The temperature varies by region. In the Collio the split is geography: Oslavia on one side, the classic houses around Cormons on the other, and a lunch table in Gorizia where both get poured. In the Langhe the modernist quarrel of the 1980s has faded and almost everyone uses large wood again. On Etna the camps arrived within a few years of each other: Benanti revived its vines in 1988, and after 2000 came Cornelissen and I Vigneri in the minimal corner, Terre Nere in the classic-terroir corner. The Contrade dell’Etna tasting each April shows them in one room.
Gravner’s qvevri come from Georgia, and the Czech Autentisté name Radikon and Gravner as their models, so when I pour an amber Ribolla in Oslavia, a Kakhetian Rkatsiteli and a Moravian skin-contact white are never far from the conversation. What I pour, and why has its own page.
What arrives on the table#
Lunch runs 12:30 to 14:30, dinner from 19:30 and later in Sicily, and I plan the drive times around it. In the Langhe: vitello tonnato, tajarin with butter and, from late September, white truffle shaved at the table, then brasato al Barolo. Dolcetto with the salumi, Barbera with agnolotti del plin, Barolo with the brasato, Moscato d’Asti with bonet.
Friuli eats frico, a Montasio and potato cake, and San Daniele ham; skin-contact Ribolla with frico and roast pork, and at a Carso osmiza Vitovska and Terrano with home-cured ham and boiled eggs, paid in cash. On Etna it is pasta alla Norma and salsiccia with porcini, Etna Bianco with grilled swordfish, Etna Rosso with the sausage. In Tuscany bistecca alla fiorentina wants Chianti Classico, and cantucci dipped in Vin Santo close the trip.
When to go and how to get there#
Piedmont is at its best from late September to mid-November, when Nebbiolo comes in and the Alba white truffle fair runs on weekends from October into early December. May and June are the green alternative; August is hot with cellars closed. The Collio is good in May and June and again in September and October. Etna suits April to June and late September to November, with snow above 1,500 metres in winter. Tuscany is May to June and September to early October.
Each base has an airport within about an hour: Turin for Alba, 1 h 10; Trieste for Gorizia or Cormons, 30 minutes; Catania for Randazzo, 1 h 20; Florence for Radda, 1 h 05. From Vienna and Prague the flights take 1.5 to 3 hours and routes change by season, so I confirm them when you book. The Collio is also a long day’s drive from Brno by way of Vienna and Graz.
Italy is euro and Schengen; cards work nearly everywhere, but keep cash for osmize and small cellars. The drink-drive limit is 0.5 grams per litre, so we move by minibus with a driver, who also handles the ZTL camera zones in the old towns. The coperto is normal and tipping is not expected. Estates ship wine, or bottles go in checked luggage.
How I tour Italy#
Three scheduled small-group tours, one per region. My Piedmont tour is based in Alba, at its best in truffle season, two cellars a day with a family member pouring and a trattoria between them. The Friuli orange-wine tour works from Gorizia, at most two long tastings a day and an afternoon at a Carso osmiza. The Etna tour runs the north slope from Randazzo: a morning among alberello vines, single-contrada wines side by side, an afternoon up to Piano Provenzana at 1,900 metres.
I speak Italian, which matters more than it should: the useful part of a cellar visit is usually the aside, and the aside is in dialect. On every table I put a natural and a classic wine from the same hill and we talk about why each winemaker chose as they did. If you want Tuscany, the Carso, or Barolo under February fog, private tours for two to twelve people start from a conversation.
