Campania’s Fiano, Greco and Falanghina: A Guide to Italian White Wines

Winemakers across several Italian regions make white wines with considerable depth and complexity. Their wines can deliver lavish scents and notable concentration, frequently possessing the backbone needed for cellaring over a decade or longer.

Although Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli are regularly cited as prime areas, many consider Campania, in southern Italy, to be the source of the country’s greatest white wines today. Its most important examples are made from three grapes: Fiano, Greco and Falanghina.

Here is an introduction to three of Campania’s leading biancos, along with bottles to seek out and drink now.

Fiano

Fiano is Campania’s most extensively planted white grape. Its best-known expression is Fiano di Avellino, made across 26 municipalities in Avellino province, an area also known by its ancient name, Irpinia.

Vineyards on slopes reaching 700 metres above sea level produce wines with brisk acidity. This brings both ample freshness and impressive ageing capacity, at times for as long as three decades.

Frequently cultivated on limestone and volcanic ground, “Fiano is rich in mineral notes,” says Vincenzo Mercurio, one of Campania’s foremost consulting winemakers. The variety is also intensely aromatic, with scents spanning pear and melon, yellow flowers, incense and gunpowder, particularly where the vines grow in limestone or volcanic-clay soils.

Excellent Fiano is also made in Salerno province, which borders the Mediterranean.

Among the leading names are San Salvatore 1988, whose Pian di Stio is strikingly pure, and Luigi Maffini, which makes Fiano from vineyards in the Cilento area close to the sea.

Maffini’s Pietraincatenata, unusually aged partly in wood, is a powerful organic wine marked by beeswax, honey and lemon-oil notes.

Fiano works especially well with ricotta ravioli, dried salt cod or pork fillet.

Recommended wines

2024 Donnachiara Empatia Fiano di Avellino ($25)

Intriguing aromas of pine, mint, Bosc pear and anise come first. The palate is rich and layered, combining beautifully ripe fruit, vivid acidity and exceptional complexity. A superb Fiano, it balances intensity with sleekness; it is enjoyable now but should reach its peak in eight to 12 years.

2021 Laura de Vito Arianiè Fiano di Avellino ($45)

The nose opens with lime, white peach, basil and goldenrod. A rich mid-palate follows, showing excellent ripeness, very good acidity and a forceful finish of green tea with a light saline note. Offering outstanding complexity and varietal purity, this can be enjoyed now and during the next four to seven years.

Greco

Greco di Tufo, from Avellino province, is the most glorious expression of Greco currently being made. Immediately north of the Fiano di Avellino zone, its production area encompasses eight municipalities, including Tufo, which gives the wine its name. The district takes its name from its soils: tufo is a rock formed from volcanic ash, historically used for local homes and churches.

On the surface, Greco and Fiano appear alike. Both can age for a long time and have very good acidity, while most are vinified in steel rather than oak. However, they are markedly different, according to Antonio Capaldo, proprietor of Feudi di San Gregorio in Sorbo Serpico.

“Fiano represents the elegance, while Greco is the power of what Irpinian white wines can be,” says Capaldo.

That perception has prompted comparisons between Greco and a quasi-red wine, owing to its weight.

The strength and overall balance of Greco di Tufo make it a particularly distinctive wine, with aromas of golden apple, grapefruit and melon alongside herbal suggestions of rosemary and sage. Few Italian white wines show such a wealth of character.

Classic food pairings include mozzarella di bufala, minestrone, escarole with beans, and seafood dishes such as linguine with clams.

Recommended wines

2024 Feudi di San Gregorio Cutizzi Greco di Tufo ($35)

Sourced from a magnificent vineyard, this classic Greco has scents of lemon peel, mint and Mediterranean yellow broom flowers. Medium-full in body, it shows ideal ripeness, very good acidity, excellent complexity and outstanding varietal purity. Orange pulp and turmeric lend appealing detail to the finish. This is a classic illustration of Greco’s identity and its beautiful sense of place. Drink over the next three to six years.

2024 Benito Ferrara Vigna Cicogna Greco di Tufo ($35)

The nose is led by lovely honey, melon and passionfruit aromas. Ideally ripe, it brings together luscious fruit, brilliant complexity and a very long finish, with lively acidity unifying every element. A textbook Greco di Tufo to enjoy during the next six to eight years.

Falanghina

Planted across all five provinces of Campania, Falanghina generally produces a lighter wine than Greco or Fiano. Its appeal lies in charming apple and citrus flavours, supported by very good acidity that makes it an excellent partner for antipasti.

The most typical Falanghina examples come from Benevento province, directly north of Irpinia. In the Sannio area, steel-aged wines offer immediate enjoyment, with floral, fruit-led aromas and pleasing acidity.

In the far north-western province of Caserta, Falanghina expresses the region’s history through Falerno del Massico Bianco bottlings. Some believe Falerno was Italy’s first wine.

At Villa Matilde, Salvatore Avallone makes several versions of this style, including Vigna Caracci, an amphora-aged Falanghina with an almond note on the finish.

Falanghina from Campi Flegrei, a small coastal district west of Naples, is highly individual in style. This is due both to a different clone of the variety and to the volcanic soils that dominate this tremor-prone territory. The wines have pronounced minerality and a savoury profile. Grilled octopus and raw fish make ideal partners.

Recommended wines

2024 Terre Stregate Svelato Falanghina del Sannio ($24)

Scents of green apple, Bosc pear, jasmine and magnolia rise from the glass. Medium-bodied, it provides considerable pleasure through its appealing ripeness, very good acidity, excellent overall harmony and impressive persistence. Truly delicious, with a delicate mint note in the finish, it is a crowd-pleaser best enjoyed within the next four years.

2024 Cantine Astroni Colle Imperatrice Falanghina Campi Flegrei ($28)

Exotic grapefruit, lime, almond and acacia-flower scents shape the bouquet. Medium-bodied, this intricate Falanghina has distinctive medicinal-herb notes on the finish. Drink over the next five years.