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Ferragosto Week

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FERRAGOSTO

It’s Ferragosto. Italy spends August 15th at the table. So we’re spending the week on the wines that get poured there. Twenty regions, 500+ grapes, one very long lunch.

Explore Italian Wines for Ferragosto Shop Italy by Region Wine & Food Pairings

Trending Wine for Ferragosto

What is Ferragosto?

Italy’s most beloved summer holiday

There’s no single way to celebrate Ferragosto, and no single wine for it. What gets opened depends on where the table is: Vermentino on the Sardinian coast, Fiano in Campania, Nebbiolo in Piedmont. Wine in Italy is inseparable from the land it comes from, and the holiday is no different.

Rosé wine with fruit and snacks on a wooden pier
20 WINE REGIONS
400+ DOC & DOCG DENOMINATIONS
500+ GRAPE VARIETIES
#1 MOST WINE PRODUCED IN THE WORLD

Italy’s diversity is unmatched, and the range is staggering: lean Soave from the Veneto, structured Barolo from Piedmont, sun-drenched Nero d’Avola from Sicily, alpine whites from Trentino and volcanic reds from Etna. Each region pours its own, and Italians wouldn’t have it any other way.

Vintage Italian travel poster for Ferragosto

Shop Italy by Region

All 20 Italian wine regions, one click away. Pick a spot on the map, or jump to a zone below.

NORTHERN ITALY

From the Alps to the Sea

Northern Italy runs from the Alps on the French and Swiss border in the west to the Adriatic and Slovenia in the east. Eight regions, each with a distinct identity and a wine to match. This is where you find Barolo, Amarone, Franciacorta, and the benchmark whites of Friuli, all in a single arc of land.

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ALPINE NEBBIOLO, PRIÉ BLANC

Aosta Valley

Italy’s smallest region, perched high in the Alps. Look for pale, finely drawn alpine Nebbiolo and rare whites from ungrafted vines at nearly 4,000 feet.

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BAROLO, BARBARESCO, BARBERA

Piedmont

The undisputed king of Italian red wine. Barolo and Barbaresco define Nebbiolo at its most profound: pale in the glass, formidable in structure, built to age for decades.

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VERMENTINO, PIGATO

Liguria

Italy’s narrow coastal ribbon, where terraced vineyards drop straight to the sea. Vermentino, called Pigato here, is crisp, herb-edged, and built for seafood and summer tables.

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FRANCIACORTA

Lombardy

Home of Franciacorta, Italy’s leading metodo classico sparkling wine. Also Valtellina, where mountain Nebbiolo grows on dramatic terraced slopes.

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SCHIAVA, GEWÜRZTRAMINER

Trentino-Alto Adige

Italy at its most Alpine, and its northernmost vineyards. Schiava makes a light-bodied, chillable red; Gewürztraminer takes its name from Tramin, a village just down the valley.

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AMARONE, SOAVE, PROSECCO

Veneto

Italy’s most prolific region. Amarone is built from grapes dried until they concentrate, Soave Classico is crisp, and Prosecco is pure joy. The Veneto covers every occasion.

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FRIULANO, BENCHMARK WHITES

Friuli Venezia Giulia

Friuli’s whites are among Italy’s most serious. Friulano and Ribolla Gialla from Collio have real depth, and this corner of Italy is the home of skin-contact white wine.

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LAMBRUSCO

Emilia-Romagna

Home of real Lambrusco: dry, fizzy, and food-obsessed. Zesty, high-acid Sorbara or darker, fuller Grasparossa; both built for a long table of antipasti and salumi.

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Featured Producers: Piedmont & Veneto

Piedmont: Vietti, Giacomo Conterno, Produttori del Barbaresco, G.D. Vajra

Veneto: Allegrini, Bertani, Masi, Pieropan

Featured Northern Italy Wines

CENTRAL ITALY

The Postcard Scenery, and the Wines Behind It

Central Italy is the classic heart: rolling hills, cypress trees, and the grape that defines it all, Sangiovese. Brunello and Chianti Classico are its greatest expressions, and this is where Italy’s most iconic reds are made. The Adriatic side adds its own specialties: Verdicchio and Pecorino whites, Montepulciano reds, and Cerasuolo rosato.

Shop All Central Italy

BRUNELLO, CHIANTI CLASSICO, BOLGHERI

Tuscany

Italy’s most famous wine region. Brunello di Montalcino is among the world’s great reds, Chianti Classico is its more approachable sibling, and Bolgheri’s Super Tuscans rewrote the rules by ignoring them.

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SAGRANTINO DI MONTEFALCO, ORVIETO

Umbria

Italy’s green heart. Sagrantino di Montefalco is one of the country’s most tannic and age-worthy reds, nearly extinct until local growers rescued it. Orvieto Classico is the crisp, mineral white counterpoint.

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VERDICCHIO, PECORINO

Marche

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi is among Italy’s most underrated whites: saline, nutty, built for Adriatic seafood, and the top bottlings age for years.

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FRASCATI, CESANESE

Lazio

Rome’s backyard, and essentially a white wine city. Frascati is the house wine of the eternal city, best in its Superiore bottlings; Cesanese is a sleeper red that locals keep close.

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MONTEPULCIANO D’ABRUZZO, CERASUOLO

Abruzzo

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is one of Italy’s great value reds, and no relation to Tuscany’s Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Cerasuolo is its luminous cherry-pink rosato, a Ferragosto essential.

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TINTILIA

Molise

Italy’s second smallest region, and its quietest. Tintilia del Molise is a rare local red grown high in the mountains: dense, dark-fruited, with surprisingly fine tannins.

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Featured Producers: Tuscany

Antinori, Frescobaldi, Castello di Ama, Ornellaia

Featured Central Italy Wines

SOUTHERN ITALY & THE ISLANDS

Volcanic Soils, Ancient Grapes

The sun-drenched south and its islands are where Italy’s oldest vines grow on volcanic soils, hillside terraces, and coastal plains. Aglianico goes back to the Greek colonies; Primitivo, Nero d’Avola, and Cannonau came later and never left. Big in character, honest in price, and built for the Ferragosto table.

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FIANO DI AVELLINO, TAURASI

Campania

Home to some of Italy’s most compelling whites: Fiano di Avellino and Greco di Tufo are picked in October and age beautifully. Taurasi, made from Aglianico, is called the Barolo of the south.

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PRIMITIVO, NEGROAMARO

Puglia

Italy’s heel. Primitivo (genetically identical to California’s Zinfandel) delivers rich, fruit-forward reds; Negroamaro, black and bitter by name, makes juicy early-drinking reds and fine rosati.

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AGLIANICO DEL VULTURE

Basilicata

One wine, one grape, one mountain. Aglianico del Vulture, grown on the slopes of an extinct volcano, is structured, mineral, age-worthy, and underpriced against Italy’s other serious reds.

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CIRÒ

Calabria

Cirò, made from Gaglioppo, is Calabria’s signature red, and legend has it ancient Greek Olympians drank it. Medium-bodied, dusty in tannin, with a haunting scent of roses.

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ETNA ROSSO, NERO D’AVOLA, GRILLO

Sicily

The island that reinvented itself. Etna Rosso comes off volcanic slopes from vines over a century old, planted as high as 3,300 feet. Structured Nero d’Avola and crisp Grillo whites round it out.

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VERMENTINO, CANNONAU

Sardinia

Vermentino is the island’s summer white, aromatic and briny, at its best in Gallura. Cannonau, the local name for Grenache, is the hearty red locals live on.

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Featured Producers: Sicily & Puglia

Sicily: Planeta, Donnafugata, Benanti, Cusumano

Puglia: Tormaresca, Masseria Li Veli

Featured Southern Italy & Island Wines

The Ferragosto Feast

Food Pairings

The Ferragosto table is a marathon, not a sprint. Here’s how to drink your way through it, one course at a time, from aperitivo to dolce.

I.Course One

Antipasti

The table comes alive with salumi, olives, bruschetta, grilled vegetables, and whatever arrived at the market that morning. You need something lively, low-alcohol, and fizzy enough to match the energy of the room.

PairingProsecco or dry Lambrusco. The bubbles cut through the fat of the salumi; the acidity brings everything into focus.

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Antipasti spread with salumi, olives, and bruschetta
Summer pasta with tomatoes and basil
II.Course Two

Primo: Summer Pasta

A pasta course is non-negotiable. In August it goes lighter and often cold: spaghetti alle vongole on the coast, pasta fredda with tomatoes and olives, or Tuscany’s panzanella.

PairingChianti Classico. Sangiovese’s natural acidity mirrors the tomato’s brightness, and the earthy tannins tie the whole thing together without overpowering a lighter dish.

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III.Course Three

Secondo: The Grigliata

August at the coast means fish on the grill: whole branzino, grilled orata, swordfish al salmoriglio. Inland the coals go to sausage and porchetta, but on Ferragosto the seafood is the classic.

PairingVermentino or Falanghina. Both have enough body to stand up to grilled fish and enough minerality to feel like a natural extension of the sea itself.

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Whole grilled branzino
Italian cheeses including aged Parmigiano-Reggiano and Pecorino
IV.Course Four

Formaggi: The Cheese Course

Parmigiano-Reggiano, aged Pecorino Toscano, Gorgonzola Dolce, fresh Mozzarella di Bufala. Italy has more than 50 DOP cheeses, and the Ferragosto table should honor at least a few of them.

PairingBarbera d’Asti (low tannin, high acid, the ideal cheese wine) for soft and fresh cheeses; Barolo or aged Brunello for the hard, aged ones.

Shop Piedmont Reds for Cheese
V.Course Five

Dolce: Sweet Finish

Watermelon is the undisputed king of Ferragosto, served in ice-cold slices; Sicily turns it into gelo di melone. Add a wedge of summer-fruit crostata and the afternoon takes care of itself.

PairingMoscato d’Asti. Low in alcohol, lightly sparkling, honey-sweet with white peach and apricot, and the perfect way to ease out of a long afternoon at the table.

Shop Moscato d’Asti
Summer fruit crostata

Wines for the Ferragosto Table

Glass of Italian rosé held up against the Mediterranean sea

DRINK PINK. CHILL THE RED.

Italy’s Summer Reds & Rosés

Some of Italy’s best warm-weather bottles are red. Chillable reds from the north, like Bardolino Chiaretto, Schiava, and early-drinking Valpolicella, plus rosati from Abruzzo’s deep-hued Cerasuolo to Etna’s pale volcanic Rosato. These are the bottles that end up on the beach and come back empty.

Shop Italian Rosato & Chillable Reds

SICILY

Frappato

Light, fragrant, and built to be chilled. Strawberry and red cherry, almost no tannin, and half the reason Cerasuolo di Vittoria works.

ABRUZZO

Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo

One of Italy’s most serious rosati. The name means cherry-colored, and it delivers: deep pink, full-blooded Montepulciano fruit, and the structure to match grilled meat.

VENETO

Bardolino Chiaretto

From the shores of Lake Garda, and made from the same Corvina that goes into Valpolicella. Pale, delicate, low in tannin, and one of Italy’s most food-friendly summer rosati.

TRENTINO-ALTO ADIGE

Schiava

Red currant, a floral lift, and a bitter-almond finish. Low tannin, gentle texture, best slightly chilled. Germans in Alto Adige call it Vernatsch, from the Latin for native.

VENETO

Valpolicella

The chillable red that has nothing to prove. Corvina, Rondinella, and Molinara: sour cherry, fresh acidity, a trace of bitter almond, and perfect at 58°F with grilled sausage.

EMILIA-ROMAGNA

Lambrusco

Dry, fizzy, red, and one of the most versatile bottles on the table. Serve it cold, pour it with salumi and pizza, and stop apologizing for it.

Italian Rosato & Chillable Reds

The Italian Whites Worth Waiting For

Italian reds get all the glory. But Italy’s whites are quietly one of the wine world’s best-kept secrets, made from native grapes that most people have never heard of and won’t forget.

Soave Classico

The myth: Soave is thin and forgettable.

The truth: Garganega from the volcanic hills of the Classico zone has texture, minerality, and a finish that lingers. The name means suave, and the good ones earn it.

Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

The myth: It only pairs with fish.

The truth: A bitter-almond finish and bracing acidity make it endlessly versatile: fried foods, vegetables, even lighter white meats. The best bottles come from Castelli di Jesi and Matelica.

Lugana

The myth: Lake Garda is tourist territory.

The truth: Turbiana, grown on the white clay-limestone soils of Garda’s south shore, gives wines of surprising depth: almond, white peach, a saline finish. It’s the same grape as Verdicchio.

Fiano di Avellino

The myth: Southern Italian whites are flat and heavy.

The truth: In the mountains of Irpinia, Fiano gets electric acidity, toasted-hazelnut depth, and the ability to age a decade or more. Nothing flat about it.

Timorasso (Derthona)

The myth: Piedmont is only about Nebbiolo.

The truth: Nearly extinct until Walter Massa tracked down the surviving vines in Colli Tortonesi, now it makes some of Italy’s most ageworthy whites: crisp, floral, with an apricot creaminess.

Shop Italian Whites
Italian white wine poured at a summer table

Italian White Wines

The Wine + The Dish

Five quick pairings to eat and drink your way through Ferragosto.

Pizza Margherita

THE DISH

Pizza Margherita

THE WINE

Montepulciano d’Abruzzo

Juicy, soft in tannin, and pizza’s soulmate. Ripe dark fruit against the tomato, and enough freshness to keep up with the cheese.

Shop Montepulciano
Antipasti board with cured meats and olives

THE DISH

Antipasti Board

THE WINE

Lambrusco di Sorbara

Lightly sparkling, dry, and bracingly acidic. It slices through cured meats and pickled vegetables like it was born for the job.

Shop Lambrusco
Grilled summer vegetables

THE DISH

Grilled Summer Vegetables

THE WINE

Etna Rosso

Nerello Mascalese off volcanic soil brings sour cherry, earth, and real tannin, which the char of the grill softens. Enough acidity to keep everything bright.

Shop Etna Rosso
Grilled branzino

THE DISH

Grilled Branzino

THE WINE

Vermentino di Sardegna

Coastal, saline, and citrus-bright. Vermentino from Sardinia tastes like it was made to sit next to the sea, and the fish you pulled out of it.

Shop Vermentino
Aged Parmigiano-Reggiano

THE DISH

Aged Parmigiano-Reggiano

THE WINE

Barolo

Umami meets umami, and the protein in aged cheese softens Barolo’s tannin. The king of Italian reds with the king of Italian cheeses.

Shop Barolo

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Celebrate Ferragosto with Italian Wine

Italy makes wine in every corner of the country, from Alpine valleys to sun-scorched islands. This is your moment to explore it. Salute.