Vadiaperti, Fiano di Avellino

Wine-world tastemakers have traditionally banished Italian white wines to the proverbial corner, categorizing them as innocuous refreshers that are perfectly fine for beachside quaffing (or “Real Housewives”-style cocktailing). I’ll admit you must choose carefully, as there are some undistinguished varieties that still dominate the Italian vineyard-scape, but with each new vintage, Italian white wine grows exponentially more interesting.The cream has begun to rise to the top, as vintners isolate the varieties and terroirs best-suited to genuinely great white wine. It so happens that two such grapes/places are in the southern region of Campania, which is not merely the cradle of ancient viticulture and its great Roman-era chroniclers (Columella; Pliny the Elder) but a place with two of Italy’s greatest white grapes: Fiano and Greco. Both thrive in Campania’s cool, hilly Irpinia region, in soils of mineral-rich, compacted volcanic ‘tuff’—tufo in Italian, so fundamental to Irpinia wine cu