The Cru Atlas

Barolo

The zone's namesake commune, where the western Tortonian marls meet the firmer Helvetian sandstones toward Monforte. The result is Barolo of poise — perfume and structure in equal measure — with Cannubi, on the seam between the two soil eras, its most storied cru.

Also part of Brunate and Cerequio, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Castiglione Falletto

A small central commune straddling the ridge where Barolo's two great soil formations meet, marrying La Morra's perfume to Serralunga's grip. The crossroads of the appellation, and the address of Monprivato, Villero, and Rocche di Castiglione.

Cherasco

One of the smallest and most marginal Barolo communes, at the southwestern limit of the zone, where only a handful of hectares are entitled to the denomination.

Diano d'Alba

An eastern commune better known for its Dolcetto, with a small allocation of Barolo grown on its best-exposed slopes — wines of moderate, easygoing structure.

Also part of Sorano, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Grinzane Cavour

A peripheral commune northeast of the core, lower-lying and warmer, forever tied to Camillo Benso, Count of Cavour, and his castle. It contributes a modest share of generally softer, earlier-drinking Barolo.

La Morra

Barolo's largest and highest commune, in the cooler western sector on pale blue-grey Sant'Agata Fossili marls. Wines lead with aroma and finesse — red fruit, florals, silk laid over the power — and tend to open earlier. Home to Brunate, Cerequio, and Rocche dell'Annunziata.

Monforte d'Alba

The southernmost of the major communes, its steep, high, sun-trapping amphitheatres set on Helvetian soils. Barolo here is dense, deeply concentrated, and built for the long haul — often the richest and most muscular in the zone. Bussia, Ginestra, and Mosconi lead the way.

Novello

A small, higher and cooler commune to the southwest, on Tortonian marls. Long overlooked and now rising fast, it gives perfumed, fresh, finely drawn Barolo — with Ravera, shared with the Barolo commune, as its calling card.

Roddi

A small commune on the northern edge near Alba, accounting for a sliver of the appellation. Its Barolo tends to be lighter-framed, perfumed, and relatively approachable.

Serralunga d'Alba

The easternmost commune, on iron-rich, compact Lequio marls and sandstones of the Helvetian era. It yields the most powerful, austere, and longest-lived Barolo of all — tar and dried rose over a frame of formidable tannin that demands patience. Vigna Rionda, Falletto, and Francia are its monuments.

Verduno

The northernmost Barolo commune, on Tortonian soils threaded with a distinctive vein of manganese that lends a savory, spiced signature. Wines are elegant, aromatic, almost delicate, with Monvigliero the great cru; the village is also guardian of the rare Pelaverga grape.

Alba

The market town at the centre of the Langhe, and the fourth commune of Barbaresco — though only in its south-eastern corner, the frazione of San Rocco Seno d’Elvio, where the ground climbs away from the town towards Treiso. Rocche Massalupo lies wholly within it; Meruzzano and Montersino cross the line from Treiso and are filed under the commune they mostly sit in.

Also part of Meruzzano and Montersino, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Barbaresco

The heart and namesake of the zone, on Tortonian Sant'Agata Fossili marls strung along the Tanaro. It gives the most classically perfumed, refined, and silken expression of Nebbiolo, evolving a touch earlier than Barolo. Asili, Rabajà, and Martinenga are its jewels.

Neive

The largest and most easterly commune, its warmer, often more calcareous sites producing the fullest-bodied and firmest Barbaresco. Santo Stefano, Gallina, and Albesani are among its celebrated crus.

Treiso

The highest and coolest commune, to the south, with steep slopes and lean soils that yield taut, mineral, intensely perfumed wines marked by freshness. Pajore is its benchmark site.

Montalcino

The hilltown south of Siena whose particular clone of Sangiovese — Brunello — produces one of Italy's most age-worthy wines. A large, varied zone: the cooler, higher north around the town leans perfumed and elegant, while the warmer south and southeast toward Castelnuovo dell'Abate and Sant'Angelo in Colle give fuller, riper, more powerful Brunello, all on galestro and alberese soils. The list below mixes single vineyards with the two southern village subzones, Castelnuovo dell'Abate and Sant'Angelo in Colle.

Biancavilla

The dry south-western face, the least planted side of the volcano: five contrade at 700 to 1,000 metres among orchards rather than in a wine district, with fierce sun, strong wind and very wide day-to-night swings.

Castiglione di Sicilia

The largest and most prestigious commune on Etna's northern flank, home to the famed belt of contrade across the volcano's north face. High-altitude vineyards on layered ash, lava, and volcanic sand grow Nerello Mascalese into taut, mineral, almost Burgundian reds — Feudo di Mezzo, Guardiola, and Rampante among them.

Linguaglossa

On Etna's cooler, more maritime northeastern slope, with sandy volcanic soils and high vineyards fringed by forest. The wines are elegant, ethereal, and finely perfumed — a less-developed flank whose contrade are increasingly sought.

Milo

The only commune on Etna where Etna Bianco Superiore may be made, and the reason is rain: the eastern face takes the weather off the Ionian first, and at 700 to 900 metres it is cool with it. Carricante grown here keeps an acidity and a lemon-and-stone bite it loses anywhere else, and the best of it ages for a decade.

Randazzo

The highest and most northwesterly commune of the north face, where the coolest sites and a patchwork of ancient and recent lava flows give wines of extreme freshness and altitude-driven tension. Calderara Sottana is its best-known contrada.

Santa Maria di Licodia

Etna's south-western flank, away from the famous north face: high, sunlit vineyards on old lava above the Simeto valley, where the mountain's western wines keep more red fruit and less of the north's iron.

Trecastagni

The south-eastern slope above Catania, studded with the volcano's extinct parasitic cones — Monte Ilice, Monte Gorna — whose flanks are terraced and planted in rings around the crater, much of it to ungrafted bush vines on almost pure black sand.

Viagrande

The lowest and warmest of the wine communes, on the gentle skirt of the volcano near Catania, where the harvest can come a month before Randazzo's on the same mountain. Home commune of the estate that did most to establish modern Etna wine.

Zafferana

Below Milo on the same eastern slope, lower and a little warmer, on some of the deepest ash soils on the mountain — chestnut and orchard country famous for its honey. Twenty contrade are named in the rules and not one of them is given a boundary.

Barberino Tavarnelle

The western edge of Chianti Classico along the Pesa, from the abbey of Passignano south past San Donato in Poggio toward Olena and Monsanto. Its UGA, San Donato in Poggio, is the only one drawn from two communes — it takes in a corner of Poggibonsi as well.

Castellina in Chianti

On average the coldest commune in Chianti Classico, exposed on its ridges and spanning more than 300 metres of altitude: wooded, stony hills to the west, and open eastern slopes looking to Monte Amiata where the soils deepen into clay. Its UGA follows the commune exactly.

Castelnuovo Berardenga

The southern frontier of the denomination, where the Chianti mountains run out toward the Crete Senesi in three descending bands — alberese high up, the Pliocene sands of the tufo senese in the middle, clay at the bottom. The warmest ground in Chianti Classico, and the source of its fullest wines. The commune holds two UGAs, divided by the torrente Arbia: Castelnuovo Berardenga to the east, Vagliagli to the west.

Gaiole in Chianti

A cool basin at the foot of the Monti del Chianti, high and heavily wooded, on galestro. Little vineyard surrounds the town itself; the vines are out on the ridges — Vertine, the Lecchi ridge with Ama and San Polo in Rosso, the San Sano plateau, and the high pockets of Starda and Fietri. The most austere and longest-lived Sangiovese in the zone.

Greve in Chianti

The valley of the Greve river carries four of the eleven UGAs: Greve itself, running north toward Florence; Lamole, one cool east-facing slope on sandy macigno; Montefioralle, on the left bank below its medieval hamlet; and Panzano, whose Conca d'Oro amphitheatre made single sites in Chianti Classico famous.

Radda in Chianti

The high watershed at the centre of the denomination, dividing the Pesa from the Arbia, with the town above 530 metres. Galestro, altitude and cold nights give the tensest, most ageworthy wines in Chianti Classico — pale, sour-cherry-scented, and severe until they are ten years old.

San Casciano in Val di Pesa

The northern gateway to the zone, between the Val di Pesa and the Val di Greve: broad, gently modelled uplands on ancient alluvial ground, low and warm. The roundest and earliest-drinking Chianti Classico, with the densest planting on the narrow ridges around Mercatale and Quattro Strade.

Aldino

A high plateau east of the Adige: fifteen hectares between 750 and 1,019 metres, planted to Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero, where the vine is a guest in a landscape of forest and pasture.

Appiano sulla Strada del Vino

The heart of the Oltradige, and the commune with more official vineyard sites than any other: glacial moraine over limestone and dolomite gravel, from the warm ground at Girlan, the largest UGA in the province, up the hillside to Schulthaus at 620 metres, where the rules allow Pinot Bianco and nothing else.

Bolzano

The warmest city in South Tyrol and the home of Lagrein, grown on the porphyry gravels of the Gries fan west of the centre. East of the river the same rock rises into the Santa Maddalena hill, where Schiava makes the lightest serious red in Italy, and the Ora wind off Lake Garda cools both every afternoon.

Caldaro sulla Strada del Vino

Lake Caldaro tempers the nights and the moraine holds the heat, which is the recipe for Kalterersee, the pale Schiava that made the village's name. Above it the slope turns cool and white: Planitzing and St. Nikolaus grow Pinot Bianco and Pinot Nero, and Mezzan is given to Pinot Nero alone.

Castelbello-Ciardes

Venosta terrace country under the castle, climbing to 927 metres, and Juvaler, five hectares given to Riesling alone, which is the province's clearest statement about where that grape belongs.

Chiusa

The Valle Isarco begins in earnest here, with granite and mica schist instead of limestone and Germanic varieties instead of Italian ones. Pardell grows Sylvaner, Müller Thurgau and Kerner; Frag is given to Pinot Grigio alone, at up to 784 metres.

Cornedo all'Isarco

At the mouth of the Val d'Ega, where mountain air funnels down at night onto Karneid: five white varieties including Kerner, on porphyry mixed with dolomite debris off the Catinaccio.

Cortaccia sulla Strada del Vino

Ten sites stacked by altitude, from Milla on the valley floor at 211 metres to Graun at 916, where Müller Thurgau is the only grape allowed. The Penon terrace in between is the commune's white-wine ground, with two of its parcels set aside for a single variety each.

Cortina sulla Strada del Vino

Flat Adige floor at 207 metres, where Giatl grows Chardonnay and Pinot Grigio: the productive plain that keeps the province's cooperatives solvent enough to farm its hillsides.

Egna

Mazon is here: the south-east-facing terrace of limestone marl and porphyry debris that has grown Pinot Nero for more than a century and remains the most convincing address for the grape in Italy.

Also part of Lehen, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Funes

The valley below the Odle peaks, where Nafen grows Kerner and nothing else between 677 and 914 metres, a crossing bred for cold places in one of the coldest that grows wine at all.

Lagundo

At the mouth of the Venosta valley west of Merano, where the wind funnels down and the Rosengarten slope is given to Schiava alone.

Magrè sulla Strada del Vino

Warm valley floor at the southern end of the province, where Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and the Bordeaux reds ripen easily, and, a thousand metres above it on the Favogna plateau, three hectares of Müller Thurgau that make the highest and smallest UGA in Alto Adige.

Merano

The sheltered spa basin, mild enough for palms in its gardens: Küchelberg on the hill above the town is given to Schiava alone, the Meranese style at its most delicate, while Labers and Freiberg climb into cooler ground for whites and Pinot Nero.

Montagna sulla Strada del Vino

The same terrace as Mazon, continued south, and the same conviction: Glen and Kalditsch are given to Pinot Nero alone, the latter at up to 789 metres, where ripening the grape is a gamble and the reward is a wine of real tension.

Naturno

Dry, sunny terraces of mica schist in the lower Venosta, irrigated from the Waale, where Riesling ripens slowly and keeps the acidity that defines the valley's style.

Naz-Sciaves

With Bressanone and Varna it carries Brixner, the largest site of the Valle Isarco at 185 hectares: Sylvaner, Grüner Veltliner, Riesling and Kerner on granite between 549 and 859 metres.

Ora

The village that names the afternoon wind, the Ora, which blows up from Lake Garda and cools the whole Adige valley. Its own vineyards are low and warm, planted to Chardonnay, Pinot Grigio and Lagrein.

Parcines

The gateway to the Val Venosta: eight hectares of terraces between 511 and 827 metres, planted to Pinot Bianco, Riesling and Pinot Nero in the driest corner of Italy.

Renon

The plateau above Bolzano, climbing to 900 metres: porphyry, cold nights and a long season, which is why its vineyards are planted to Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay, Sauvignon and an increasingly convincing Pinot Nero rather than to the basin's reds.

Also part of Leitach and St. Peter, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Salorno sulla Strada del Vino

The province's southern doorstep, where Buchholz climbs 600 metres from the valley floor to the slope above, and Salurn-Pfatten lies flat at 206 metres, the lowest ground in the province.

Silandro

Near the top of the Venosta at almost 900 metres: five hectares of schist terraces, minute yields, and wines of pure mountain cut.

Terlano

Quartz porphyry, and whites built to age: Kreuth on the warm slope, Klaus given to Sauvignon alone, and Vorberg climbing to 924 metres, the terrace behind a Pinot Bianco that improves for twenty years.

Termeno sulla Strada del Vino

Gewürztraminer takes its name from this village, and the rules take that seriously: four of Termeno's six sites are printed twice, once under the plain name and once under a commune-prefixed form reserved for Gewürztraminer alone. Limestone and marl, with Söll climbing to 773 metres.

Tesimo

With Nalles it holds Sirmian, terraces climbing to 805 metres on porphyry, planted to Pinot Bianco, Chardonnay and Sauvignon.

Tirolo

Under the castle that gave the region its name, on terraces above the Adige and Passirio valleys, still irrigated by the medieval Waalwege: gneiss and moraine, planted to Pinot Bianco, Sauvignon and Pinot Nero.

Also part of Küchelberg, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Velturno

Schrambach, nine hectares of granite terrace above the Isarco, given to Sylvaner alone: the valley's signature grape on the ground where it is taken most seriously.

Villandro

Sauders, on the high slope above the Isarco, is the only UGA in Italy set aside for Grüner Veltliner: peppery and lean on thin granite at up to 872 metres.

Berbenno di Valtellina

The western end of the terraced slope, and all 25 hectares of Maroggia - the smallest subzone and the last to be recognised, in 2002. Steep, hand-worked, and still largely sold in bulk.

Montagna in Valtellina

Half of Grumello and a fifth of Inferno lie in this commune above Sondrio - the steepest, rockiest stretch of the Rhaetian slope, where the terraces are too narrow for a tractor.

Also part of Inferno, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Poggiridenti

The heart of Inferno: a south-facing rocky amphitheatre that traps the heat and gives the broadest-shouldered Nebbiolo in Valtellina, from only 55 hectares in all.

Sondrio

The provincial capital sits between two of the great subzones: Sassella comes down to its western edge, Grumello starts at its eastern one. Both are dry-stone terraces of sandy soil over granite, and the town is where most of the valley's cellars are.

Also part of Grumello, filed under the commune it mostly lies in.

Teglio

The village that gave the valley its name - Tellina vallis - and holds almost all of Valgella, the largest subzone at 140 hectares. Deeper soils, less rain, and the widest spread of microclimates in Valtellina.

Grezzana

Most of the Valpantena. A single broad valley north of Verona with soils far deeper than the Classica's terraces, and the cool night air that drains off the Lessini.

Negrar di Valpolicella

The largest share of the Classica and the most famous address in it: the Negrar valley runs north into the Lessini on limestone and marl, and its name is on the labels of Quintarelli and Bertani's Novare alike.