Each month, David Brenner of Villasfor2 in Abruzzo recommends a ‘Special Italian Wine’ for you to try and enjoy at home – or on your Abruzzo holiday.

Greco di Tufo DOCG, 2007.Mastroberardino

Think wine; think sun-baked Campania in Italy's south – and you'll probably come up with Taurasi, the region's legendary and rightly-lauded red.

But Taurasi's not a wine for when the temperature's hovering in the mid-90s. On those days, you turn to Campania's other great gift to Italian wine – the blissful white Greco di Tufo.

The Greco is a centuries-old grape variety, originally introduced to Italy from Greece. It was first grown on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, but has reached its spiritual home in the vineyards around the city of Tufo in the Avellino province of Campania.

It's a relative newcomer to the list of great Italian wines, only achieving DOCG status in 2003, but it had been worthy of that ranking for at least a decade previously.

And in this bottle, we have twin delights – a great wine from a great producer. The Mastroberardino winery was founded 130 years ago and has been the absolute leader in introducing the wines of Campania to the world.

Greco di Tufo can be a blend of at least 85% Greco and up to 15% Coda di Volpe grapes. This bottle is 100% Greco. It's a light straw gold in the glass, with glints of pale green.

You'll get scents of candied angelica and greengages, but the real power of Greco di Tufo is in the taste. An extraordinary, minerally, complex blending of flavours, with a finish to rival Methuselah in longevity.

Maybe not a wine for everyone. It's assertive and very slightly bitter with traces of apricot kernel and almond. We drank this bottle, beautifully chilled, with a cold, poached salmon-trout, new potatoes and cucumber salad. An English summer lunch on a hot Italian afternoon. It went all went down sensationally well. 

At A Glance…

• This month's featured wine: Greco di Tufo
• Vintage: 2007
• Producer: Mastroberardino
• Website: www.mastroberardino.com/eng/index.asp
• Grape: 100% Greco
• Strength:12%
• Closure: Cork
• This bottle cost: €10.65

Next Month:

A bottle of Pinot Grigio costing over €13 ? And it's not even DOC ? Surely a mistake ? Pinot Grigio's cheap and cheerful isn't it ? Well, certainly not cheap in this case – but cheerful ? Find out next month whether this is an expensive mistake – or a bottle of wine you'll really enjoy drinking on your Abruzzo holiday, as we taste the last of the summer whites.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 10:55 pm and is filed under Eating and Drinking, Special Italian Wine, Vineyards. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.