Paestum Rosso IGT

Named after the ancient Greek colony of Poseidonia (modern Paestum) and its extraordinary Doric temples on the Cilento coast of Salerno province — one of the most archaeologically significant sites in Italy. The IGT designation covers the coastal plain and hills of the Cilento area, and functions primarily as a creative release valve for producers who want to make ambitious wines free from the Cilento DOC’s constraints.

The Terroir The Cilento coast combines sandy, mineral-rich soils on the coastal plain with clay and limestone on the inland hills, all under intense Tyrrhenian heat moderated by sea breezes. The combination produces Aglianico of a different character than Taurasi: less brutally tannic, more textured and accessible, but still capable of genuine depth and complexity.

The Wines Predominantly Aglianico-based reds — sometimes pure, sometimes blended with Primitivo or Piedirosso. Whites from Fiano appear here too, often more saline and citrus-forward than the volcanic Fiano di Avellino DOCG. The IGT format allows producers to work with varieties and methods the DOC doesn’t accommodate.

The Critical Take This is where the “Super Campanians” live. San Salvatore’s range and Luigi Maffini’s Kratos prove that the Cilento coast can produce wines of national importance under an IGT label. The Greek temples make for a memorable backdrop; the wines earn the attention on their own merit.

The Cilento The zone is worth understanding as a place rather than a legal category. The Cilento is a large, mountainous and thinly populated national park south of Salerno, historically among the poorest parts of Campania and largely bypassed by the twentieth century. It is where Ancel Keys conducted the studies that produced the term “Mediterranean diet”, and the agricultural landscape that prompted them — figs, olives, goats, wild herbs and small mixed farms — is still substantially intact. Vineyards sit between the Tyrrhenian and peaks reaching 1,800 metres, which supplies both the heat and the diurnal swing that give Cilento Aglianico its unusual combination of ripeness and lift.

At the Table The regional cooking is vegetable- and legume-heavy, and the wines suit it: cicci maritati, the Cilento bean and grain soup, artichokes, aubergine, and the buffalo mozzarella made a short distance north around Paestum itself. The Aglianico handles grilled goat and lamb. Serve the reds at 16–17°C, a degree or two cooler than a Taurasi, and the Fiano at 11–12°C with anchovies — the alici di menaica, caught here by a method old enough to be a protected tradition in its own right.

Benchmark Producers San Salvatore, Luigi Maffini (Kratos), De Conciliis.