Greco di Tufo

In the northern communes the subsoil is Pliocene conglomerate with sand and sandy clay; along the Sabato there are Messinian sandstones, silty marls and clays with lenses of gypsum and veins of sulphur; in the south, around Tufo, Altavilla and Prata, volcanic ash takes over. The sulphur shaped the area's history: when huge deposits were found at Tufo in the nineteenth century, the mineral spread across Irpinia and with it the practice of dusting the grapes with sulphur against disease, and vineyards multiplied.

The wine must be at least 85 per cent Greco, with Coda di Volpe making up the rest, from vertically trained vineyards cropped at no more than ten tonnes a hectare; there is also a sparkling version. The ampelographer Ferrante wrote in 1927 that he had no doubt Greco was the Aminea Gemella praised by Columella. Greco di Tufo became a DOC in 1970 and a DOCG in 2003.