Italy is a beautiful country and is known for its amazing food and drink. It's a place where people who love amazing gastronomy go. If you are a food expert or just love Mediterranean food and drink, I bet you've tried Italian wine.  From Pinot Grigio made from the grape of the Pinot family to Moscato wine made from the Moscato grape, there are many styles and varieties of Italian wines and many different varieties of grapes used. Let's have a look more in detail at these. 

How many varieties of grapes are there in Italy?

Italy is known all around the world for its delicious wine but did you know there are over 350 varieties of grapes allowed to be planted to make Italian wine? I bet most of us can't even name a handful! Let's have a look at what the most popular grape varieties are. 

Sangiovese

The Sangiovese grape is the most widely planted in the whole of Italy. This grape has been grown around central Italy for generations and is now grown around Tuscany, Umbria and Corsica. Wine made from the Sangiovese grape has rich red fruit flavours such as strawberries and cherries. 

Pinot Gris

Pinot Gris or Pinot Grigio is a white wine grape variety that is made from grapes with greyish, white, and/or purple skins. When the grapes are ripe, they give off tropical flavours, whilst less mature grapes will have sharper citrus tones. This grape is found in the Lombardy region of Italy.

Merlot

Merlot is a dark blue–coloured wine grape variety. It is used in various wines as a blending grape as well as on its own. It is grown in the Friuli wine region in the northeast of Italy. It is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc or Sangiovese. The Merlot grape generally has flavours of red fruits and chocolate.  The Italian Merlot wine is characterised by its light 

body and herbal notes due to the terroir (soil and climate) in which it is grown.

That's not unique to Italy; it's just how wine works everywhere," says Curtis Hascall, head winemaker at Shale Oak Winery in Paso Robles. "The same grape planted in two different places will give you two genuinely different wines, because the soil, the sun exposure, and even the fog patterns all leave their mark. It's one of the things that makes wine more interesting than almost any other agricultural product

Moscato

The Moscato or muscat grape ranges from white to pink and makes sweet wine with a floral aroma. In Italy, it is primarily grown in the Piedmont region and is used in the production of Asti Spumante, a sweet sparkling wine that is popular around the world where it is one of the wines of choice for celebratory toasts. 

Barbera

Barbera is a red Italian wine grape variety. It is known for its deep colour, high acidity and low tannins. It produces medium body wines with cherry as well as other red and black fruit flavours. It is found in the northwest part of Italy, although it is also found less commonly in the south. 

So here are some of the different varieties of grapes used in Italian wines.  There are many more. Did you recognise some of these grape varieties? 

*Collaborative post