Explore Italy’s Greatest Regions

Wine Team New York | May 20, 2023

Our latest Sotheby’s Wine selection is a tour through some of Italy’s greatest cellars. At every stop, from the northern fog-shrouded hills of the Langhe to the southern sun-kissed coasts of Campania, you’ll find bottles that deliver classic expressions of timeless regions and styles.

Tuscany, centrally located geographically, is in many ways the heart of Italian wine country. It’s the birthplace of bold, muscular Super Tuscans like Ornellaia, a sumptuous Bordeaux blend infused with maritime freshness, grown just three miles from the Mediterranean. The same legendary Bolgheri house also produces one of the world’s most famous expressions of Merlot: the single-vineyard, single-varietal Masseto, raised on a clay-based 16-acre site that furnishes monumental opulence.

Here too is Chianti Classico, where galestro soils and cool, elevated hillsides invest Fontodi’s organically-grown Sangiovese with vibrancy and purity. And of course, you can’t leave Tuscany without a top Brunello di Montalcino in hand. Il Poggione, one of the appellation’s most traditional and historic estates, makes what many consider the benchmark Brunello: an earthy, spice-laced powerhouse with marvelous cellaring potential.

Further north in Piedmont, fog and cooler temperatures furnish the necessary microclimate for cultivating the sensitive, soulful Nebbiolo grape. Stately Barolo is usually accompanied by forbidding prices—which makes Paolo Scavino a rare exception, a deeply established, family-run winery that delivers balance and beauty at a value.

Scoot down south, to the high-altitude hills of Avellino in Campania, and you’ll discover a contender for one of the world’s great white aperitif wines. Guido Marsella’s Fiano di Avellino is a light, mineral-driven, mouthwatering bottle crafted by a winemaker who is considered such a master of the varietal, he’s nicknamed Mr. Fiano.

With this carefully curated selection, you can sample wines from across the range of Italy’s incredible viticultural heritage – with no other form of transport but a wine glass and a corkscrew.