White Grape · Campania
Campania's most serious white, and one of the few Italian whites built to age. Grown on volcanic tuff in Irpinia, Greco di Tufo is smoky, mineral and full-bodied, with ripe peach fruit and a phenolic grip that most crisp southern whites can only envy.
Greco is the structured, smoky white of Campania, carried to southern Italy by Greek settlers nearly three thousand years ago. On the volcanic tuff soils of Irpinia it makes Greco di Tufo, one of the south's most ageworthy whites: full for a white, deeply mineral, with ripe peach fruit and a savoury, almost saline core.
Your cellar, your trips, and the wines you've been tracking are right where you left them.
New here?
Free, always. Education first, we'll never sell you anything you didn't ask to see.
Already have an account?
Enter the email you signed up with and we'll send a link to choose a new password.
Clearing it up
Campania
Calabria
The anchor fact: Campanian Greco (Greco di Tufo) is a dry, structured white. Calabrian Greco di Bianco is a sweet dessert wine from a different grape.
Taste · Where it sits
Forget scores out of five. Here’s Greco described against grapes you already know.
Full for a southern white, weightier than a crisp Vermentino and closer to a white Burgundy in heft, which is why it can partner richer dishes.
No real tannin, but an unusual phenolic grip from thick tuff-grown skins gives Greco a textural bite that most whites lack.
High, well-knit acidity that survives the late Irpinia harvest and carries the wine through a decade of ageing, firmer than a rounder Fiano.
Bone-dry and savoury, its ripe peach fruit balanced by smoke and salt, the opposite of the sweet Calabrian Greco di Bianco that shares its name.
Key flavours
The map
Greco is medium-bodied, crisp, fresh acidity, mapped against other white grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and freshness resemble Greco.
Is this for you?
Reach for it when…
Maybe skip it if…
Serving guide
Serve at
10-12°C
Serve at 10 to 12C, a touch warmer than a crisp white, so its body and peach fruit show rather than shut down.
Decant
No
No decanting needed, though a young, tight Greco di Tufo opens with twenty minutes of air.
Glass
Chardonnay Glass
A fuller white bowl lets the ripe fruit and smoky minerality expand, as you would give a white Burgundy.
Drink within
3-5 days
Good from two to four years; unlike most Italian whites, Greco is often better with a little age.
Cellar
Up to 10 years
Top Greco di Tufo holds ten to twelve years, turning peach into honey, herbs and toasted nuts.
On the table
Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.
Campanian mussels
Peppered mussels in their own briny liquor meet Greco's saline minerality and firm acidity, a pairing straight from the Campanian coast.
Caprese
Buffalo mozzarella, tomato and basil need a white with body and acidity; Greco's peach fruit and salt lift the tomato instead of being flattened by it.
Salt cod
Slow-cooked salt cod with tomato and olives calls for a structured white, and Greco's grip and smoke stand up where a crisp wine would vanish.
Aged cheese
Stuffed, matured caciocavallo is rich and savoury; Greco's body carries it while the almond-bitter finish resets the palate.
Browse every pairing
Buy it · three to start with
A curated trio across the price range, then every Greco on sale in the UK right now.
Entry · everyday
3 retailers
Greco di Tufo
3 retailers
£15.20
£16.89
Why this one: Feudi di San Gregorio is the reference producer for Greco di Tufo, and its base bottling is the cleanest introduction: peach, smoke and firm acidity.
Special occasion
2 retailers
Greco di Tufo
2 retailers
£21.80
£27.25
Why this one: Antonio Caggiano's Devon is a benchmark single-estate Greco di Tufo from Irpinia, built to age into honey and smoke over a decade.
12 of 16 bottles
5 retailers
Greco di Tufo
5 retailers
£16.90
3 retailers
Greco di Tufo
3 retailers
£15.20
£16.89
2 retailers
Greco di Tufo
2 retailers
£17.50
£19.02
2 retailers
Greco di Tufo
2 retailers
£21.80
£27.25
2 retailers
Toscana
2 retailers
£39.84
1 retailer
Cirò
1 retailer
£14.82
£15.00
1 retailer
Basilicata
1 retailer
£13.21
£15.29
1 retailer
Greco di Tufo
1 retailer
£15.99
1 retailer
Calabria
1 retailer
£18.39
1 retailer
Greco di Tufo
1 retailer
£18.99
1 retailer
Greco di Tufo
1 retailer
£20.02
1 retailer
Greco di Tufo
1 retailer
£20.38
Denominations
The appellations where Greco plays a starring role.
Where it grows
From Vesuvian ash to Avellino's Tufo hills, Campania pours four DOCGs of Italy's deepest wine memory: Aglianico for thunder, Fiano and Greco for stone-cool Read more
Italy's smallest southern producer, where Aglianico ripens late on the volcanic cones of Mount Vulture and Matera's tufa cellars age the country's most Read more
Calabria is the toe of Italy where Cirò Rosso stands as the south's most historic red, framed by the Pollino, the Sila, and 780 km of two-sea coast. Read more
Italy's quietest wine region: Tintilia rediscovered on Apennine slopes, Montepulciano ripened by Adriatic light, and Biferno reds anchored above the Termoli Read more
The terroir
Greco is at its greatest on one small patch of volcanic ground, and fades to a simpler white almost everywhere else.
Tufo
The volcanic tuff hills of Irpinia, in Avellino
Greco di Tufo DOCG: smoky, mineral and structured, the grape's ageworthy benchmark.
Wider Irpinia and Sannio
The Campanian hinterland
Rounder, fruitier Greco for earlier drinking, often as Campania IGT.
Basilicata and Molise
The neighbouring south
Warmer, softer expressions where Greco loses some of its mineral tension.
Editorial
Greco arrived in southern Italy with the Greek colonists of Magna Graecia, and may have been a component of the celebrated Falernian wines of antiquity. Its name simply means Greek. Two distinct vines grew from that ancient stock: the Calabrian Greco Bianco, which makes a sweet dried-grape wine at Bianco, and Greco proper, the structured white of Campania.
Most Italian whites are made to drink young. Greco di Tufo was built on volcanic rock to last.
Greco di Tufo, DOCG since 2003Greco's stronghold is Greco di Tufo, a [Campanian](/regions/campania) appellation promoted to DOCG in 2003, centred on the village of Tufo and seven neighbouring hillside communities in Irpinia. The soils here are volcanic tuff, and they leave their mark: the wine is smoky, flinty and deeply mineral, with a phenolic grip that gives Greco an unusually deep colour and the ability to age for a decade or more. By law it is at least 85 percent Greco, usually rounded out with a little Coda di Volpe.
In the glass expect ripe peach, apricot and citrus, a note of toasted almond and, with age, honey and herbs. Jancis Robinson has likened its aromatics to Viognier, though Greco is firmer and more savoury. Late-ripening and thick-skinned, it holds its acidity well into the autumn. Alongside [Fiano](/grapes/fiano), it is one of the two great white grapes that made Campania a serious white-wine region.
Good to know
Greco di Tufo tastes full-bodied and mineral for a white, with ripe peach, apricot and citrus over a smoky, flinty core and a toasted-almond finish. It is one of southern Italy's most structured, ageworthy whites.
Greco is the grape; Greco di Tufo is the wine and its DOCG appellation in Campania. Greco di Tufo must be at least 85 percent Greco, grown on the volcanic tuff soils around the village of Tufo in Irpinia.
Greco pairs with rich seafood and Campanian dishes: mussels, salt cod, grilled prawns, fried fish and aged caciocavallo. Its body and acidity also handle buffalo mozzarella and tomato-based plates.
Yes. Unlike most Italian whites, Greco di Tufo ages well, usually drinking best three to four years after harvest and developing honeyed, herbal depth for ten to twelve years thanks to its phenolic structure.
Campanian Greco di Tufo is a dry, structured white. The unrelated Calabrian Greco di Bianco is a sweet dessert wine made from dried grapes, but Greco di Tufo is firmly dry and savoury.
Greco is grown across southern and central Italy but is at its best in Campania, especially the Greco di Tufo zone in Irpinia. It is also found in Basilicata, Molise and elsewhere in the south.
Explore by style
Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.
Keep exploring
