Introduction to Volcanic Italian Wines
Italy is one of the world's great volcanic wine countries. This guide covers its regions, top wines, how they taste and food pairings.
Active volcanoes, old craters and underground heat have shaped much of Italy. They also created some of the most distinctive vineyard land on earth.
Volcanic soils are porous and low in nutrients, so vines must root deeply. The soils hold heat by day and release it at night. They give wines a mineral, smoky and salty character you rarely find on other soils.
Italy's volcanic wines are very varied:
Etna DOC has become one of Italy's most fashionable and praised wine regions this century. It sits on the slopes of Europe's largest active volcano. The vineyards grow at 400 to 1,000 meters on black lava soils.
The local red grape, Nerello Mascalese, makes elegant, delicate wines often compared to Burgundy. They are light in color, high in acidity and tannin, very perfumed, and able to age for a long time.
Etna Bianco, made from Carricante, is just as good. It is a pure white with citrus, mineral and salty notes. To understand Etna, you need to know about "contrade". These are zones based on separate lava flows, a bit like Burgundy's premier cru sites.
The rolling hills of Soave DOC in the Veneto sit on dark volcanic basalt. This rock gives the local Garganega grape its almond, citrus and mineral profile.
The Soave Classico zone, the historic heart, lies on this basalt. The wider DOC zone also includes flatter river soils. The difference matters: volcanic Soave Classico has a depth and minerality the wider zone can't match. Soave Superiore DOCG recognizes this quality gap.
The Campi Flegrei ("Burning Fields") near Naples is a huge, very active volcanic zone. The vineyards sit above an active crater, on soils rich in sulfur, pumice and volcanic minerals.
The local Falanghina and Piedirosso grapes thrive in this harsh place. They make wines with a smoky, salty, almost sulfurous mineral taste unlike anything else in Italy.
The volcanic island of Ischia lies in the Bay of Naples. Its wines come from the local Biancolella and Forastera grapes, grown on steep terraced slopes. They taste of the sea and the volcano: salty, citrusy, mineral and very local.
Aglianico grown on Monte Vulture, an extinct volcano in Basilicata, makes some of the most powerful wines in southern Italy. Three things combine here: the altitude (600–700m), the basalt soils and the grape's natural tannin. The result is wine that can age for decades. For more on Aglianico, see our guide to Italian red wines.
Critics and scientists have long argued about whether you can taste volcanic soil in the glass. More and more, the evidence says you can:
Explore Sicily wines and the Etna DOC to see why volcanic Italy is one of the world's great wine frontiers.
Production rules and official information from the consortia of the wines in this guide: