Skip to main content 

Welcome to…
That Useful Wine Site

  Wine explained, clearly and helpfully, including critic-recommended specimens of each variety.

(click for menu)
bottles grapes glasses barrels
You are here:  Home  »  varietals  »  whites  »   ( = this page)
(Click on any image above to see it at full size.)
You are here:  Home  »  varietals  »  whites  »   ( = this page)

You can get a site directory by clicking on the “hamburger” icon () in the upper right of this page.
Or you can search this site with Google (standard Google-search rules apply).
(Be aware that “sponsored” links to other sites will appear atop the actual results.)

Search term(s):





Welcome to That Useful Wine Site!

You have apparently come to this page from a link on a search engine or another site. If this is your first visit here, I much recommend that you take a few minutes to look over the introductory material accessible via the blue “Introductory” zone of the Site Menu available from the “hamburger” icon in the upper right of this (and every) page. An understanding of the purposes and principles of organization of this site will, I hope and believe, much augment your experience here, for this page and in general. You can simply click this link to get at the site front page, which, unsurprisingly, is the best place to start. Thank you for visiting.

The Greco Grape


Quick page jumps:


About Greco

(Synonyms: Asprinio, Greco del Vesuvio, Greco delle Torre, Greco di Napoli, Greco di Tufo, Grieco di Castelvenere)

Background

Map showing the Campania region of Italy

“Greco” is another one of those grape designations that actually covers a whole set of grapes, some related, many not (as is the case with the Refoschi, the Malvasias, the Muscats, and some others). The Greco set includes Greco, Greco Bianco, Greco Giallo, Greco Moro, Greco Nero (a red-wine grape), Greco Bianco del Pollino, Greco Bianco di Cirò, Greco Bianco di Donnici, Greco Bianco di Lamezia Terme, Greco Bianco di Rogliano, Grecomusc’, Greco Nero di Scilla, and probably some others—you can see why we say the situation is a mess.

To try to keep things simple, what we do with grape sets like “Greco” is deal only with the particular grapes that make wines of at least reasonable quality and that you are likely to be able to readily find available. In this case, that reduces to Greco (the grape actually named just “Greco”) and “Greco Bianco”. (Just to add to the amusement value, Greco Bianco seems to actually be, despite the name, a variety of Malvasia.)

The outstanding Greco-based wine is “Greco di Tufo“ (which, despite much confusion, is only the name of the wine, and not that of any grape); Greco di Tufo is made from Greco grapes grown in the Campania-region appellation of Tufo, whose name derives from its soil, which is believed, probably correctly, to much influence the wines made there.

(We will not deal here with Greco Bianco, though it is a good grape, for several reasons. First, it is mostly used to make sweet dessert wines. Second, there are seemingly countless grapes locally called “Greco Bianco” but which are really something else. Third, production is relatively small. So from here on, we discuss only the one grape properly, and simply, called “Greco”. We also ignore the unusual red grapes called Greco-Something.)

Greco is a white-wine grape presumably (but not certainly, despite the name) originating in Greece, but now of Italian growth. The grape may well be of ancient heritage, having possibly come into Italy over two and a half millennia ago, if it is the same wine described (and praised) by eminent writers from the classical age of Rome; indeed, it may have been a component of the famed Falernian wines of that era.

Greco wines are typically relatively deep in color for whites, and have a profound nose (Jancis Robinson has likened it, in a vague way, to Viognier). The taste, however, is not usually fruit-forward; what fruit there is will be stone fruit, notably peach, though some find pomes instead (apples, pears). There is also usually some citrus-y quality, and most especially substantial minerality. Greco usually has medium to high acidity, making it tart and crisp. Better Greco wines can bottle-age to advantage, and acquire herbal overtones as they do, though there is always a risk of eventual over-oxidation and ruination of the wine.

Greco is one of a trio of white wines that distinguish the Campania region: Greco, Fiano, and Falanghina. As a rough rule of thumb, a vintner who is good at any of those will be good at all of them, and a few notable houses tend to dominate regional production.

Factoid: the tag “Greco”, casually applied to many different (and mostly minor) grape types throughout Italy, derives not so much from their probable origin as from their usual use to make sweet wines—sweet wines being generally thought of then as “Greek” in style, and then being immensely popular.

Return to the page top. ↑


Some Descriptions of Greco Wines

Return to the page top. ↑


Some Greco Bottlings to Try

(About this list.)

  Wines with a critics’ consensus score of 91:
Vernice "Rock Barock" Greco di Tufo   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]

  Wines with a critics’ consensus score of 90:
Feudi di San Gregorio Greco di Tufo   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]
Mastroberardino "Nova Serra"   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]
Villa Raiano Greco di Tufo   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]

  Wines with a critics’ consensus score of 89:
Donnachiara Greco di Tufo   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]
Ippolito 1845 "Mare Chiaro" Cirò   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]
Statti Greco   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]
Villa Matilde Tenuta di Altavilla Greco di Tufo   [or search Cellar Tracker for this wine]

Return to the page top. ↑




Disclaimers  |  Privacy Policy


All content copyright © 2024 The Owlcroft Company
(excepting quoted material, which is believed to be Fair Use).

This web page is strictly compliant with the WHATWG (Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group) HyperText Markup Language (HTML5) Protocol versionless “Living Standard” and the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) Cascading Style Sheets (CSS3) Protocol v3  — because we care about interoperability. Click on the logos below to test us!




This page was last modified on Sunday, 8 December 2024, at 9:46 pm Pacific Time.