ITALY, THE LAND OF RED WINE! Chianti with wild boar ragù, Barolo with white truffles, porchetta with Montepulciano d’Abruzzo—wait. Stop. Throw that Fiat into reverse. A lot of the great wines of Italy are white. And, even better, they’re ideal for summer drinking.
It might come as a surprise, but Italy produces more white (60%) than red wine, led by the regions of Veneto, Puglia, Emilia-Romagna, and Sicily. The most common varieties are Trebbiano, which largely but by no means exclusively goes into inexpensive bottles for the local market; Pinot Grigio, the most exported white variety; and, semisurprisingly, Chardonnay. (I’m leaving aside Glera, the grape of Prosecco; that’s a different story.)
But for me, the true joy lies in Italy’s less well-known, native varieties. Coastal Vermentinos from Liguria and Sardinia…
