10 white wines to try before you leave Italy

Are you coming to Italy? Are you looking forward to tasting Prosecco and Chianti? Be open mind and you will be incredibly surprised!

In this shortlist I want to recommend the best 10 Italian white wines to my foodie friends traveling all over the country. Surely, it does not include the great variety of Italian wines, but it consists of wines in which you can find the soul of Italian regions and traditions.

1. Frascati Superiore (Lazio)

When in Rome you cannot miss tasting the edge of local white wines.

• Color: straw color, almost brilliant.
• Taste: Persistent bouquet with a floral scent and exotic fruit.
• To pair with: tonnarello cacio e pepe, fresh cheeses and shellfish.
• Category: DOCG.
• Try: Poggio Verde Principe Pallavicini (wine shop ave. price: € 12,00 bottle).

2. Chardonnay (Piemonte)

If you are looking for a completely different Chardonnay experience, try a luxury Chardonnay made in the Langhe region (in the Barbaresco area).
Here, every vineyard and wine producer will offer you a different kind of wines, due to the variety of soil that changes meter by meter.

• Taste: superb concentration of perfumes, mature fruits, with a lively acidity and amazing long-lasting persistence. If aged, it becomes more and more harmonic.
• To pair with: truffle, fish, white meat, soups, and pasta.
• Try: Chardonnay 2013 Gaya & Rey (wine shop: € 145,00 bottle).

3. Friuli Colli Orientali (Friuli Venezia Giulia)

• Taste: Scent of hay and stones, very fresh and rich in minerals. in addition with flavor of cedar and exotic fruit.
• To pair with: soups and risotto.
• Try: Friuli Colli Orientali Illivio Felluga (wine shop: € 22,00 bottle).

4. Garganega (Veneto)

This lovely Italian white wine, produced with local grapes, is a top expression of its land. The soil of volcanic origin, full of basalt, also makes the grapes rich in minerals, and gives an aromatic flavor to them.

• Color: typical straw-color.
• Taste: Full in salinity, the scent of peach, apple, chamomile, and stone. Also Very fresh.
• To pair with: pies, vegetarian meals, fried fish, chicken curry.
• Try: Soave Classico DOC Inama 2013 (wine shop: € 10,00 bottle).

5. Vermentino (Liguria)

This variety descends from the Spanish vines that you can find in Tuscany, Sardinia, Corsica, and Liguria. Specifically in this area, it produces incredibly flavored wines.

• Taste: full body and alcohol, fruity and aromatic herbs scent also lightly almond aftertaste. Delicate notes with the prevalence of thymus, sage and Mediterranean scrub.
• To pair with: appetizers, fish,and pasta.
• Try: Fosso di Corsano Vermentino Colli di Luni Terenzuola 2015 (wine shop: € 13,00).

6.Verdicchio (Marche)

This white wine is definitely one of the oldest Italian ones.

• Color: gold-green.
• Taste: typical intense almond aftertaste. Fresh and often very saline, it is balanced with good alcohol quantity that makes it smooth. Perfumes of herbs, grass, and fruit.
• To pair with: appetizers, fried specialties, roasted fish and first courses, turkey and white meat.
• Try: Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio Classsico Villa Bucci Riserva 2013 (wine shop: € 32,00).

7.Ribolla Gialla (Friuli Venezia Giulia)

This is an ancient variety of white wines that grow on hills.

• Taste: peach, pear, lavender, and herbs. Complex and elegant nose
• To pair with: fish in any cooking style, appetizers, eggs, quiches and white meat with sauce.
• Try: Ribolla Gialla Damijan Podversic 2011 (wine shop: € 30,00 bottle).

8.Prosecco Conegliano Valdobbiadene (Veneto)

Prosecco is a status symbol and a must to drink, perfect for the happy hour. When in Italy, you should try the one produced in Cartizze with the Italian method Martinotti/Charmat.

• Taste: dry wine with lively acidity. In addition, inviting fragrance. Sweet acacia flowers and hazelnuts scent.
• To pair with: for instance, celebrating something.
• Try: Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore di Cartizze Dry 2014 Bortomiol (wine shop: € 18,00 bottle).

9. Grillo (Sicilia)

This variety of Italian white wines is cultivated all over the Sicily. In fact, it is important for the production of Marsala. Alone Grillo, is very elegant and generous, amazing if it is refined in wood.

• Taste: intense nose of candy citrus fruit. If vinified in purity and stainless steel, it becomes amazingly perfumed and tasty. The scent of delicate fruit and herbs. It also has an amazing capacity for aging.
• To pair with: shellfishes, mussels, risotto with fish.
• Try: Il Grillo ‘14 Feudo Disisa (wine shop: € 10,00 bottle).

10.Vernaccia di San Gimignano (Toscana)

No Italian wine can boast a history that dates back centuries like Vernaccia di San Gimignano.

• Color: pale straw yellow with golden highlights that become more evident with age.
• Taste: perfume fine and delicate. Fruity and floral scents (when the wine is young); the mineral scent of flint (when it matures). It is a dry, harmonious and savory flavored wine. It also has an amazing capacity for aging.
• To pair with: “ribollita” soup and all variants of this found throughout Tuscany;  also fish dishes; fried food and eggs; in the same way white meats and medium mature cheeses.
• Try: Vernaccia di San Gimignano Sanice Riserva 2012 (wine shop: € 12,00 bottle).