Greco di Tufo

Greco is one of the ancient white varieties of Campania, in southern Italy, and its name points to a Greek origin — the region was Magna Graecia, colonised from the eastern Mediterranean from the eighth century BC, and several of its grapes are thought to have arrived then.

Its finest expression is Greco di Tufo, a DOCG covering a small group of villages in the hills of Irpinia, inland and well above sea level east of Naples. The name of the town, Tufo, refers to the volcanic tuff beneath it, and sulphur was mined there commercially into the twentieth century — a geology that producers connect directly to the smoky, sulphurous mineral note in the wine.

Greco is not an aromatic grape in the obvious sense. It gives a full-bodied, firmly structured white with yellow peach, pear and citrus peel, a distinctly stony, almost flinty character, and a phenolic grip on the finish that makes it feel almost tannic. Acidity is high and the alcohol is usually generous.

It ages exceptionally well for a southern Italian white, gaining a waxy, honeyed, nutty complexity over five to ten years, and it is one of the few Italian whites routinely worth cellaring.

The altitude of Irpinia is the key to all of it: the vineyards sit between 400 and 700 metres, and the cold nights preserve acidity that would be lost on the Campanian coast.

Greco Bianco in Calabria makes the sweet dried-grape wine of Bianco, and there is debate about whether it is the same variety.