A Chianti wine is any wine produced in the Chianti region of central Tuscany. It was historically associated with a squat bottle enclosed in a straw basket, called a fiasco. However, the fiasco is only used by a few makers of the wine as most Chianti is now bottled in more standard shaped wine bottles. In the mid-late 19th century, Baron Bettino Ricasoli helped establish Sangiovese as the blend's dominant variety, creating the blueprint for today's Chianti wines.
Amarone della Valpolicella, usually known as Amarone, is an Italian DOCG denomination of typically rich dry red wine made from the partially dried grapes of the Corvina, Rondinella (5–30%) and other approved red grape varieties. Valpolicella is in the province of Verona, within the large Veneto region near Venice.
Valpolicella is a viticultural zone of the province of Verona, Italy, east of Lake Garda. The hilly agricultural and marble-quarrying region of small holdings north of the Adige is famous for wine production. Valpolicella ranks just after Chianti in total Italian Denominazione di Origine Controllata (DOC) wine production.
Corvina is an Italian wine grape variety that is sometimes also referred to as Corvina Veronese or Cruina. The total global wine-growing area in 2010 was 7,495 hectares, all of which is grown in the Veneto region of northeast Italy, except for 19 hectares planted in Argentina. Corvina is used with several other grapes to create the light red regional wines Bardolino and Valpolicella that have a mild fruity flavor with hints of almond. These blends include Corvinone, Rondinella, and Molinara, and Rossignola for the latter wine. It is also used for the production of Amarone and Recioto.
Rondinella is an Italian wine grape variety. Almost all of the total global growing area of 2,481 hectares is in the Veneto region of northern Italy, and the grapes are used in wines from the Valpolicella and Bardolino wine regions. Rondinella always appears in these wines blended with Corvina, as a secondary constituent along with Corvinone and Molinara. The grape has rather neutral flavors but is favored by growers due to its prolific yields. The vine is very resistant to grape disease and produces grapes that, while they do not necessarily have high sugar levels, do dry out well for use in the production of Valpolicella straw wine styles such as Recioto and Amarone.
Trollinger, Schiava, or Vernatsch, is a red German/Italian wine grape variety that was likely first originally cultivated in the wine regions of South Tyrol and Trentino, but today is almost exclusively cultivated on steep, sunny locations in the Württemberg wine region of Baden-Württemberg. It is primarily known under the synonyms Trollinger in Germany, Vernatsch in South Tyrol and Schiava in other Italian regions. As a table grape the variety is sometimes known as Black Hamburg, which is commonly confused with the similar synonym for Black Muscat—a variety that is actually a cross of Trollinger and Muscat of Alexandria.
Italian wine is produced in every region of Italy, home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Italy is the world's largest producer of wine, with an area of 702,000 hectares under vineyard cultivation, and contributing a 2013–2017 annual average of 48.3 million hl of wine. In 2018 Italy accounted for 19 percent of global production, ahead of France and Spain. Italian wine is both exported around the world and popular domestically among Italians, who consume an average of 42 litres per capita, ranking fifth in world wine consumption.
Lizzano is a comune of 10,175 inhabitants (2013) in the province of Taranto in the Apulia region of southeast Italy.
Montepulciano is a red Italian wine grape variety that is most noted for being the primary grape behind the DOCG wines Offida Rosso, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Colline Teramane, Rosso Conero and the DOC wine Rosso Piceno Superiore.
Venetian wine is produced in Veneto, a highly productive wine region in north-eastern Italy.
Molinara is a red Italian wine grape which accounted for 595 hectares of planting land in Italy as of 2010, almost exclusively in the Veneto region. It adds acidity to the wines of the Valpolicella and Bardolino regions, which are made with blends of Corvina, Corvinone, Molinara and Rondinella. The wine's high propensity for oxidation, coupled with its low color extract, has caused a decline in favor and plantings among Venetian vineyards, declining in ten years by more than half from an area of 1,301 hectares in 2000. There has been debate about whether the grape is purple or blue. This grape is occasionally blended with Merlot to produce soft elegant rosés, and Molinara also accounts for 122 hectares of planting land in Spain.
Bardolino and Bardolino Superiore are Italian red wines produced along the chain of morainic hills in the province of Verona to the east of Lake Garda. Bardolino takes its name from the town Bardolino on the shores of Lake Garda and was awarded Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) status in 1968. The Superiore is a stronger aged wine, and was promoted to Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita (DOCG) status in 2001. The blend of grapes used to produce the wine primarily includes Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara. Up to 15% of the blend is allowed to include Rossignola, Barbera, Sangiovese, or Garganega, in any combination.
Lombardia (Lombardy) wine is the Italian wine produced in the Lombardy region of north central Italy. The region is known particularly for its sparkling wines made in the Franciacorta and Oltrepò Pavese areas. Lombardy also produces still red, white and rosé wines made from a variety of local and international grapes including Nebbiolo wines in the Valtellina region, Trebbiano di Lugana white wines produced with the Chiaretto style rosé along the shores of Lake Garda. The wine region currently has 15 Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC), 3 Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) and 13 Indicazione Geografica Tipica (IGT) designations. The main cities of the region are Milan, Bergamo and Brescia. The region annually produces around 1.3 million hectolitres of wine, more than the regions of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Marche, Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and Umbria.
Perricone is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown in Sicily. In the late 20th century there was around 1000 hectares/2,500 acres of the grape planted throughout the island. According to wine expert Oz Clarke in Sicily Perricone is used to make full bodied, deeply colored, highly alcoholic wines.
Abrusco is a red Italian wine grape variety grown primarily in the Tuscany region where it is a minor blending component permitted in the wines of Chianti. The grape has long history in the region and was mentioned in 1600, under its synonyms Abrostino and Colore, in the posthumously published work by Italian agronomist Giovan Vettorio Soderini Trattato della coltivazione delle viti, e del frutto che se ne può cavare. There Soderini notes that the grape was often used to add deeper, more red color to Tuscan wines.
Bombino nero is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown in southern Italy, particularly the regions of Apulia, Basilicata, and Lazio, as well as on the island of Sardinia. It is a permitted grape variety in the Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) wines of Castel del Monte and Lizzano. The grape is primarily a blending grape but it can also be used as a varietal for red and rosé wines. Though DNA evidence has shown that Bombino nero is not a dark-berried color mutation of the similarly named Bombino bianco, ampelographers still believe that the two varieties are related in some way.
Abbuoto is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown primarily in the Lazio region of central Italy. Historically the grape was believed to be responsible for the Ancient Roman wine Caecubum that was praised by writers such as Pliny the Elder and Horace but historians and wine experts such as Jancis Robinson and Julia Harding note that connection is likely erroneous.
Rossola nera is a red Italian wine grape variety that has been growing in the Valtellina region of Lombardy since at least the 17th century. In 2004 DNA profiling determined that the grape has a parent-offspring relationship with the Piedmont wine grape Nebbiolo though which variety is the parent and which is the offspring is not yet clear. However, most ampelographers believe that Nebbiolo is likely the parent variety since written records in Piedmont have noted Nebbiolo being grown since at least the 13th century.
Rossignola is a red Italian wine grape variety that is grown in the Veneto wine region of northeast Italy. The variety was first mentioned growing in the province of Verona in the early 19th century and today is a permitted blending variety in several Denominazione di origine controllata (DOC) wines of the Veneto including Bardolino and Valpolicella.
Corvinone is a red Italian wine grape variety native to the Veneto region of northern Italy. In 2010 a total grape growing area of 930 hectares was planted worldwide, with all of it in Italy save for 1 hectare in Argentina. Seldom found in wine alone, Corvinone is blended, along with Rondinella, Molinara and other autochthonous varieties, in Corvina-dominant red wines of the Valpolicella and Bardolino regions of Veneto. Corvinone is similar enough to the more widespread Corvina variety that it has historically often been mistaken as a clone; indeed its name in Italian suggests a meaning of "large corvina". More recent ampelographical work and DNA profiling has shown it to be a separate variety, however.
