Fiano is Having a Moment
Fiano is having a moment in the spotlight when it comes to the next generation’s Italian wine preferences.
Earlier this year, Food & Wine extolled that Campania was making the most compelling wines in Italy, citing Fiano’s complex aromatics, “especially when the grapes are grown in limestone or volcanic clay soils.” Jasmine Hirsch from the legendary Hirsch Vineyards in Sonoma took to Instagram recently to gush about her love for Ciro Picariello’s 906 Fiano di Avellino, claiming she was obsessed with it. When I touched base with her this past week regarding the wine, she said: “I like the basic Fiano as well, but the 906 is special. I love that wine. It is one of my absolute favorite white wines.”
What is it exactly about Fiano that has everyone so excited? There are a few reasons that immediately come to mind, but perhaps first and foremost it’s the way that Fiano can express a sense of place and exhibit so many different flavor profiles. It can be salty, minerally, flinty, or citric—or all four at the same time, depending on the soils! The higher the altitude at which it’s grown, the more it retains its acidity. As it pertains to fruit, Fiano can run the gamut between melon and pear to lemon zest with chamomile, making it one of the most food friendly wines from anywhere in the world.
In fact, Fiano is becoming such a phenomenon with somms and restaurateurs right now that the team at Oliver McCrum is often asked about their most coveted specialists—the winemakers that do Fiano better than anyone. While they can’t play favorites, there is indeed a producer from Campania that grows Fiano exclusively, just outside the town of Lapio at the heart of the Fiano de Avellino appellation. Her name is Laura de Vito and her Fiano-specific portfolio is one of the most exciting I’ve tasted.
With 30+ year old vines grown at over 500 meters above sea level across three different locations, de Vito’s vineyards are currently being converted to organic farming so as to purely express the characteristics of each site. ‘I want to make wines that are representative of my territory,” she told us on our last visit. To do that, she keeps yields low, ferments entirely in stainless steel, then ages each wine on the lees for another 9 months in stainless, with an additional 15 months in bottle before release.
The Fiano wines from Laura de Vito are so flavorful and complex that it makes summarizing their flavors quite difficult. You get linden, pear, hazelnut, mint, wild herbs, and a volcanic tanginess in some. Others are brimming with apple, citrus, apricot and a flinty minerality. Another exciting facet of Fiano is its ability to age, and the wines from Laura de Vito can easily undergo 10-15 years of evolution in the bottle, showcasing an even greater complexity over time.
In some ways, the way that modern wine enthusiasts are embracing Fiano mirrors the same qualities we love about white Burgundy. Like Chardonnay, it’s a terroir-driven variety that is at its most exhilarating when farmed organically and allowed to express its origins with as little intervention as possible. There’s a reason that the above-linked Food & Wine article settled on Laura de Vito for its recommended Fiano producer. Simply put, they possess “outstanding complexity and varietal purity.”
-David Driscoll