Italy’s wine landscape is famously diverse. Alongside the country’s celebrated classics lies a vibrant patchwork of regions, varieties and producers quietly shaping the next chapter of Italian fine wine. The selection I have put together for our Italian fine wine spotlight brings together some of those lesser-known names – wines that sit just beyond the most familiar yet offer character and a strong sense of place in abundance.
In many ways, this offer created the perfect opportunity to include bottles that do not always find an obvious home elsewhere. Italy’s wine culture is wonderfully complex, and many remarkable wines sit outside the well-trodden paths of Barolo, Brunello or Chianti Classico. Here, the aim was simply to seek out new discoveries: distinctive regional styles, revived indigenous varieties and producers whose thoughtful work deserves wider attention.
The journey begins in the north, where nebbiolo takes on an altogether different expression in the terraced vineyards of Valtellina. Producers such as ArPePe craft wines of remarkable finesse and perfume, shaped by altitude and alpine freshness. In nearby Colli Tortonesi, the revival of timorasso has brought renewed attention to this once almost-forgotten grape, with estates such as La Colombera demonstrating its texture, energy and capacity to age.
Central Italy provides another compelling storyline. Producers such as Contrada Contro are reviving historic mountain vineyards in the Monti Sibillini, while La Calcinara explores the character of Marche’s coastal hills through expressive wines such as Verdicchio and Rosso Conero. In Abruzzo, the legendary Valentini continues to set the benchmark for traditional, deeply characterful wines. Projects such as Mutiliana are shining new light on the hills above Modigliana, where sangiovese grown on sandstone and marl produces particularly fragrant and finely structured expressions.
Further south, a number of producers play to their strengths while exploring both tradition and innovation. In Sicily, estates such as Arianna Occhipinti, COS and Barraco work with native varieties and minimal-intervention winemaking to create wines of striking individuality. Equally exciting is I Cacciagalli, whose amphora-aged Aglianico Lucno and Fiano Zagreo capture the energy of Campania’s volcanic soils and the textural possibilities of traditional winemaking techniques. Many of these southern wines also employ skin contact and careful ageing in amphora, producing white and red wines that are simultaneously fresh, vibrant and distinctly regional. Are these wines a blast from the past or a whisper of the future? I think it’s a mix of both and it’s certainly an exciting time to be discovering the new take on traditional craft.
Taken together, these wines capture the excitement of exploring Italy off the beaten track – a country whose greatest strength lies in the extraordinary breadth of its vineyards, where curiosity and tradition continue to produce wines of real individuality.
