Italian White Wine

The wine country of Italy has a lot to offer when it comes to white wine. From Pino Grigio, who has already descended into mass production and is now rising again in his reputation, Pecorino, with a strong character, rediscovered just a few decades ago – Italian white wine has many faces!

Italy is one of the countries in the world that are inextricably linked with viticulture. It has many wine regions, grape varieties, styles, over two million wineries, and, last but not least, a winemaking tradition that is thousands of years old. Italian red wine maybe a little more famous and typical of the country – and yet the most widely grown wine variety in Italy, Trebbiano, is a white wine.

From Trebbiano to Pinot Grigio: The Italian white wine varieties

Trebbiano is also one of the oldest grape varieties because writings from Roman antiquity testify that people made white wine from Trebbiano grapes even then. Because Trebbiano is very productive, but the resulting wines are more neutral in taste, the grape variety is mainly used for blended wines such as Frascati and Orvieto. The famous and popular Lugana white wine, on the other hand, consists of 90 to 100 percent Trebbiano – and many people love its fresh and spicy taste and its lightness.

Another famous white grape variety is Pino Grigio, the Italian name for Pinot Gris. After a period of mass production, the wine made from this grape variety lost its character, today, more and more high-quality Pino Grigios, sometimes fruity, sometimes flowery, but always full-bodied and aromatic, are produced by renowned wineries.

Numerous other Italian varieties, the cultivation of which is mostly limited to specific regions, form the diverse white wine world of Italy. For example, Italian wine makers from Abruzzo or Lazio produce complex wines with a strong character from the old Pecorino grape, rediscovered in the 1980s. In Piedmont, you can find the Arneis grape variety, from which the most extraordinary white wines in Italy, characterized by an impressive fruit intensity, arise.

International quality white wine from Italy

Autochthonous Italian grape varieties, in addition to the Verdicchio, mentioned above, Ribolla Gialla or Arricante, is essential for white wine production in Italy, but internationally known and cultivated grape varieties are also highly valued by many winemakers and processed into excellent wines. This includes the adaptable Chardonnay grape, which grows in Friuli and South Tyrol, and makes for refreshingly fruity white wines with high alcohol content. The same regions are also known for their particularly high-quality, piquant Sauvignon Blanc. The Pinot Blanc, known in Italy as Pinot Bianco, is also popular with Italian winemakers, especially those in northern Italy.