Irpinia Wine & Hazelnut Trail — Fiano di Avellino DOCG
The hills around Avellino produce three of Italy's most celebrated DOCG wines — Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo and the mighty red Taurasi — plus a hazelnut so prized it gave the city its ancient name, Abellinum. Tasting them at source, in the cellars where they're made, is a genuine privilege.
Three DOCGs and a City Named After a Nut
Fiano di Avellino is a dry, mineral white wine with a floral and smoky complexity that wine lovers travel across Italy to find. Greco di Tufo, grown on volcanic soils a short drive north, is rounder and golden-hued. Taurasi, made from Aglianico grapes in the hills to the east, is often called 'the Barolo of the South' — structured, tannic and built to age for decades.
The Irpinia hazelnut — the Avellana — has been cultivated here since antiquity and is the genetic ancestor of the Tonda Gentile used in Piedmont. Local pasticcerie sell pralines, torrone and hazelnut cream that make the connection between city name and nut deliciously clear.
Where to Taste: Cellars and Festivals
Feudi di San Gregorio in Sorbo Serpico, about 15 km east of Avellino, is one of Campania's most spectacular wineries — a sleek modern cellar carved into ancient stone walls, with tens of thousands of bottles stored in rock niches. Their tasting tours run regularly and cover the full DOCG range.
Closer to the city, the annual Fiano Love Fest brings producers, sommeliers and food stalls together in a celebration of the grape that put Irpinia on the world wine map. For everyday tasting, any enoteca along Corso Vittorio Emanuele II will pour a glass of the local white alongside a plate of caciocavallo cheese and salumi.
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