White wine it’s the perfect drink to pair with your summer dinners. it is served cool, around 10 degrees and it’s usually paired with seafood, pasta, white meats and vegetables.
Italian white wines by region
Italian white wines are produced from North to South of Italy: in the north like in Alto Adige (South Tirol) near Bolzen you can find excellent Pinot Grigio, Pinot Bianco and Gewurztraminer. In Lombardy you have the Lugana.
From Piedmont, the mother region of Barolo, you can taste the Gavi Docg. A silky white wine made with Cortese grape in the area of the city of Alessandria and Gavi. The reputation of this wine dates back to the 1659.
Veneto is famous for the Prosecco, a fizzy wine, easy to drink with low alcool content wine, that has become one of the most Italian renoun wines.
In Liguria, which is the north west seaside coast is famous for the Pigato, which is a crips white white with a mineral touch,.
Top 10 Italian white wines
- Fiano Di Avellino (Campania, Naples)
- Greco di Tufo (Campania, Naples)
- Pigato (Liguria, Savona and Albenga)
- Passerina (Marche and Abruzzo, Region)
- Pinot Grigio (South Tirol – Trentino Alto Adige, Bolzen)
- Pinot Bianco (South Tirol – Trentino Alto Adige, Bolzen)
- Gavi di Gavi (Piedmont, Alessandria and Gavi)
- Vermentino (Sardinia, Sassari and Olbia)
- Grillo (Sicily, Trapany)
- Ribolla Gialla (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Udine)
FiaGre is a mix of 70% Fiano di Avellino grapes and 30% Greco di Tufo. These two kinds of grapes are Italian native white wine grapes. They grow at 400 meters altitude above sea on a clay and limestones ground in Campania, in the South of Italy, quite close to Naples. I had the pleasure of trying this wine at a wedding in the town of Taurasi where the Cantine Caggiano, who makes this wine, are located.
The taste is well balanced, fresh with medium persistence. The Acidity 6,5 – 6,7g/l
Piagato di Albenga Liguria
“Marenè” – Pigato DOC Riviera Ligure di Ponente
Production area: Regione Marixe Bastia d’Albenga
Grape variety: 100% Pigato grapes
Altitude: 100 metres above sea level
Growing system: rows of vines pruned in spurred cordon
Grape harvest: September-October
Ageing: 4 months
Refining: 2 months
Colour: straw-yellow with more or less green tints when young
Aroma: ample with notes of musk, undergrowth, broom, cedar, peach kernel
Taste: dry, quite intense and persistent, immediately reminiscent of flavours having a slight almond aftertaste
Serving temperature: 12-14°C
Alcohol content: 13% by volume Best served with: seafood starters, vegetable soups, pesto-based main courses, fish dishes
Best white from Sicily – Grillo grapes – Grillo Parlante
It is a bright and lively wine, a pale yellow with greenish reflections. Its bouquet combines the delicacy of flowers with the sweetness of white fruits, giving voice to the Grillo Parlante (litt. “talking cricket”, i.e. Pinocchio’s Jiminy Cricket) and disclosing the flavors of the Grillo cultivar.
To the palate it is fresh and pleasantly tasty. Its finesse and balance show a perfect compromise between acidity and ripeness of the fruit.
- Region: Sicily
- Denomination: DOC Sicilia
- Grape: Grillo
- Alcohol: 13,5 % vol.
- Food pairings: It suits very well both raw and cooked fish, especially when the fish is saltbaked or cooked simply with fresh herbs.
Excellent as an aperitif, it is a wide-ranging wine that can match different… tables. - Serving temperature: 8 – 10 °C
- Winery: Fondo Antico
Best white wine from Trentino Alto Adige – Pinot Blanc and Pinot Gris
The St. Michael Eppan winery and their White Pinot
The winery of St. Michael Eppan, produces some of the finest white wines from the North of Italy. My persona favourite are the the white pinot and the gewurztraminer.
Variety: Pinot Blanc
Sites: vineyards in higher lying positions of the municipality of Appiano (480-650m)
Soil: limestone gravel with some percentage of clay
Vinification: Fermentation and part of the malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks.
Alcohol Content: 13.5 %
Acidity: 5.6 gr/lt
Serving Temperature:
8-10°C
Pairing Recommendations: Flexible wine for meals and relaxing on the terrace; delicious with mediterranean antipasti, fish, white meat, pasta and pizza. It also pairs
nicely with mild cheeses and, for example, Profesen with a filling of Ricotta cheese.
Storage/Potential:
3 to 4 years
Italian white wine pairings
Wine is fermented using yeast, which produces sulfites, so all wines contain sulfites. Winemakers add additional sulfites to control the fermentation and avoid wine turning into vinegar and other defects. However the quantity of sulfites varies e.g. in the organic wine there are less sulfites by law.
Generally the wite white is made from white grapes like pinot grigio and chardonnais, however it’s possible to make white wine also from red grape, e.g. Pinot Noir, by removing the dark skins of the grape when the wine is made.
Yes, the white wine contains acid. Tartaric acid, malic acid, lactic acid and their salts make up the fixed acidity which is an important characteristic of these wines. Acids are essential for the preservation of wine, so a long-lived wine suitable for aging must have a relatively high fixed acidity.
Just as alcohol gives wine a pseudocaloric sensation, so acids induce a papillary sensation that can be perceived as freshness. The gustatory freshness of a wine is a sensation induced by fixed acids, which counteracts, by balancing them, the sensations of warmth and softness induced by alcohol and sugars. The scale of the freshness (acidity) of the wines is the following:
flat wine (low acidity)
fairly cool wine
fresh wine
acidic wine (acid beyond measure) Source 4calici
| Sweet white | Light White | Full body white | Light red wine | full bodied reds | Low acidity reds | |
| Gramms /Liter | 8 | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 4> |
| Ph | 3 | 3.25 | 3.5 | 3.75 | 4 |
