You know what? I don’t blame you. When most of us think of white wines from Italy we think about Pinot Grigio, maybe even Soave and Gavi. I’ll let you list all your Italian whites in your own time, but there’s no shame in it if you struggle to get past those 3. Supermarket shelves are chock full of high acidity, low complexity, low production cost, drink-it-with-anything wines. And you know what? They sell, so who can blame them?
Well I wrote a series of blog pieces a while back about the south of Italy, and how wine makers there are really getting their act together. Fair enough it’s once again the red wines that are increasing in fame, with future superstars such as Aglianico, Primitivo, and Nero D’Avola, but white wines that have been produced for centuries for mass consumption in the local villages and towns have been creeping onto the shelves in the UK. The two most famous I’d say are Greco di Tufo, and our New Wine This Week: Falanghina.
Falanghina is produced mostly in a region of south west Italy called Campania. It’s famous for Naples, for seafood, for Pompeii and Herculaneum, and for the world famous (and stunningly beautiful) Amalfi Coast. It’s what you call a hot mediterranean climate. That means you get plenty of cooling sea breezes, but in the summer it gets bloody hot.
Given the extra heat around here, the body of the wine is slightly higher than most Italian whites you’ll have tasted before. In terms of taste, again it’s best to think about the local food pairings and how wine production developed to suit them. Think Amalfi, think lemons. You’ll get lovely citrus flavours across the board, and watch out for further tastes of green fruit that are somehow kept despite the heat suggesting otherwise.
I’m really looking forward to exploring this wine. I say “exploring”, I obviously meant “drinking”!
Cheers
Other posts in #NWTW Week 13:
