White Grape · Tuscany

Vernaccia

San Gimignano's own white: Italy's first DOC, a crisp lemon-and-chamomile wine with a bitter-almond finish, and a name that two unrelated grapes also wear.

Vernaccia is the white grape of San Gimignano, the Tuscan hill town with the towers. It makes a dry, crisp white with a lemon and chamomile nose and a bitter-almond finish. In 1966 it was the first wine in Italy to get a DOC. Two other, unrelated grapes share the name: one in Sardinia, one in the Marche.

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Denominations

Clearing it up

One name, two different wines

vs
This is the grape

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

San Gimignano, Tuscany

  • White grape, crisp and dry, bitter-almond finish
  • Italy's first DOC (1966), DOCG since 1993
  • About 510 hectares, all inside one municipality
  • Drink young; Riserva keeps five years or more
Not this

Vernaccia di Oristano and Vernaccia Nera

Sardinia and the Marche

  • Oristano: a white grape from Sardinia's west coast, aged for years into an amber, nutty wine like sherry
  • Vernaccia Nera: a red grape from Serrapetrona in the Marche, made into a sparkling red
  • Neither is related to the Tuscan grape; the register lists all three separately

The anchor fact: Vernaccia means local, so three unrelated Italian grapes carry the name. Vernaccia di San Gimignano is the crisp Tuscan white and Italy's first DOC; Vernaccia di Oristano is an amber Sardinian white; Vernaccia Nera is a red from the Marche.

Taste · Where it sits

What it’s actually like in the glass

Forget scores out of five. Here’s Vernaccia described against grapes you already know.

BodyLean, not thin
LightFull

A touch fuller than Trebbiano Toscano, lighter than Vermentino; a Riserva with lees and oak moves it up a notch.

TanninNone to speak of
SoftGrippy

A white: the only grip is the faint bitter-almond note at the end, which is the grape's signature, not tannin.

AcidityCrisp
SoftZippy

Fresher than Vermentino from the coast, a step below Verdicchio; the sand and clay hills below 500 metres keep it lively.

Fruit & sweetnessBone dry
DrySweet

Lemon and green apple with no sweetness; the Sardinian Vernaccia di Oristano is the one that can be made sweet.

Key flavours

Almond
The bitter-almond finish is how you spot a Vernaccia di San Gimignano blind. It is there in Castellani's £12 bottle and in a Riserva alike, and Vermentino never has it.
Lemon
Fresh lemon leads the nose in the steel-made wines drunk within a year of the harvest, which is most of what the town produces.
Chamomile
A dried-flower, chamomile note sits behind the citrus. It is the aroma the local growers point to, and it deepens into broom and jasmine in the Riserva.
Green Apple
The crisp apple bite of a young Vernaccia, sharper on the sandier, cooler slopes below the town.
Wet stones
The stony, faintly salty middle that comes off the Pliocene yellow sand: the reason the wine reads as mineral rather than fruity.
Jasmine
Only in the Riserva, after months on the lees and a spell in oak, where the chamomile turns to jasmine and broom.
Racy · Crisp Round · Soft Light-bodied Bold · Full Chardonnay Glera Pinot Grigio Sauvignon Blanc Vermentino Pinot Bianco
Vernaccia

The map

Vernaccia is light to medium, crisp, fresh acidity, mapped against other white grapes you can buy. The closer a grape sits, the more its weight and freshness resemble Vernaccia.

Vernaccialight to medium, crisp, fresh acidity
Chardonnayfuller, rounder
Gleraa close match
Pinot Grigioa close match
Sauvignon Blanccrisper
Vermentinoa close match
Pinot Biancorounder

Is this for you?

An honest gut-check

Reach for it when…

A bold red that just works

  • A crisp Italian white under £15 with a real sense of place
  • Fried fish, seafood pasta, or pappa al pomodoro
  • The Riserva if you want a Tuscan white that improves for five years

Maybe skip it if…

You’re after something else tonight

  • You want a big, aromatic white: try Gewürztraminer or Fiano instead
  • You are expecting the nutty, sherry-like Vernaccia di Oristano: that is a different grape
  • You want a white for cellaring ten years: only the best Riservas get there

Serving guide

Pour it at its best

Serve at

8-10°C

8 to 10C for the young wine, 10 to 12C for a Riserva, or the almond finish turns harsh.

Decant

No

None needed; a Riserva just wants ten minutes out of the fridge.

Glass

Standard White Wine Glass

A standard white glass: the aromas are delicate and a big bowl loses them.

Drink within

3-5 days

Within three years of the vintage for the steel wines.

Cellar

Up to 5 years

Riserva bottles keep five years or more; the Sardinian Oristano wines keep for decades.

On the table

What to eat with Vernaccia

Start with the home-table matches that made the grape, then browse the full cuisine library.

Pappa al Pomodoro

The Tuscan match

Pappa al Pomodoro

Bread, ripe tomato and olive oil are soft and rich. Vernaccia's acidity cuts the oil and its faint bitterness lifts the sweetness of the tomato.
Fish and Chips

The Friday-night bottle

Fish and Chips

Batter and salt want a crisp, dry white with no oak. The lemon in the wine does the job of the lemon wedge, and the almond finish likes the salt.
Pecorino sardo e pan carasau

For the Sardinian Vernaccia

Pecorino sardo e pan carasau

Salty aged pecorino and crisp carasau bread meet the amber, nutty Vernaccia di Oristano. It tastes of chestnut and almond and stands up to the salt.
Seadas

Oristano with dessert

Seadas

Fried pastry filled with cheese and drenched in honey needs a wine with honey and nut notes of its own. A sweet Vernaccia di Oristano is the Sardinian answer.

Browse every pairing

Italian Italian
Desserts 1

Buy it · three to start with

Not sure which bottle? Start here

A curated trio across the price range, then every Vernaccia on sale in the UK right now.

Entry · everyday

Castellani Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Castellani Vernaccia di San Gimignano

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

2 retailers

£11.84

View Wine

Why this one: The one four UK shops stock at about £12: chamomile, a squeeze of lemon and the almond finish, all in the right place.

The sweet spot

Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG Bertesca Castelli del Grevepesa

Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG Bertesca Castelli del Grevepesa

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

1 retailer

£14.30

View Wine

Why this one: 100% Vernaccia, hand-picked in the heart of San Gimignano and made in steel: the clean, classic style, around £17.

Special occasion

Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva DOCG Tenute Guicciardini Strozzi

Vernaccia di San Gimignano Riserva DOCG Tenute Guicciardini Strozzi

Vernaccia di San Gimignano

1 retailer

£18.80

View Wine

Why this one: Guicciardini Strozzi's Riserva is only made in the best years. A few months in French oak and a year in bottle at Cusona give it broom and jasmine on the nose. About £22.

12 of 20 bottles

Denominations

Where it earns a name on the label

The appellations where Vernaccia plays a starring role.

Vernaccia di San GimignanoDOCG UmbriaIGT

Where it grows

The places it calls home

Tuscany

From galestro hills in Chianti Classico to the single Brunello rise of Montalcino and the sea-facing Cabernets of Bolgheri, Tuscany is Italian wine's stage in Read more

1874 wines · 60 denominations

Sardinia

Granite-soil Vermentino in Gallura, schist-grown Cannonau in Ogliastra and bush-vine Carignano on the Sulcis sands: Sardinia bottles a Mediterranean profile Read more

194 wines · 36 denominations

Marche

From Castelli di Jesi Verdicchio to Conero Montepulciano and Offida Pecorino, Marche covers 5 DOCGs across roughly 16,500 hectares of Adriatic and Apennine Read more

223 wines · 23 denominations

The terroir

Three grapes, three places. The Tuscan Vernaccia grows on one town's hills; its namesakes grow on an island and in the Marche mountains.

San Gimignano

Hills below 500 metres around the town, Siena province

Pliocene yellow sand and sandy clay: crisp, lemony wines with the bitter-almond finish; the Riserva versions add lees and a little oak.

Oristano

The west coast of Sardinia

A different white grape, aged for years in old barrels into an amber wine of chestnut, honey and almond, dry or sweet.

Serrapetrona

The Marche hills inland from the Adriatic

Vernaccia Nera, a red grape, makes a sparkling red under its own DOCG; nothing to do with the Tuscan white beyond the name.

Editorial

About Vernaccia

In 1276 the town council of San Gimignano was already taxing Vernaccia. Dante, Boccaccio and Cecco Angiolieri all wrote about it. It is the oldest named white wine in Tuscany, and in 1966 it became the first wine in Italy to be granted a DOC. It was promoted to DOCG in 1993.

Vernaccia di San Gimignano was the first Italian wine to be granted a DOC, in 1966. The town had been taxing it since 1276.

Consorzio della Vernaccia di San Gimignano, production regulations

The grape nearly vanished in the early 1900s, when growers replaced it with the bigger-cropping Trebbiano and Malvasia. It came back in the 1960s because it made a crisper, more distinctive wine than either. Today about 510 hectares are planted, all on the hills around one town, below 500 metres, on yellow sand and sandy clay. The rules say a Vernaccia di San Gimignano must be at least 85% Vernaccia; Sauvignon and Riesling can fill no more than 10%.

Most of it is made in steel and drunk young: lemon, green apple, chamomile and a stony middle. Then comes the bitter almond at the end. That note is what tells you it is Vernaccia and not Vermentino. Some estates age it on the lees for more weight. The Riserva versions see a few months of oak and keep for five years or more. It is the white you drink between glasses of Chianti on a Tuscan trip. It is often the cheapest serious white in the shop.

The name is the confusing part. Vernaccia comes from the Latin for local, so several unrelated grapes carry it. In Sardinia, Vernaccia di Oristano is a different white grape that makes an amber, nutty wine close in spirit to sherry. In the Marche, Vernaccia Nera is a red grape behind the sparkling red Vernaccia di Serrapetrona. Italy's grape register and the international variety catalogue list all three as separate varieties. This page is about the Tuscan one, with a note on the other two.

Good to know

Frequently asked

Vernaccia di San Gimignano is dry and crisp, with lemon, green apple and chamomile, a stony middle and a bitter-almond finish. It is medium-bodied, usually made without oak, and best drunk within three years. Riserva versions are rounder and can age.

No. They are unrelated grapes that share a name meaning local. The Tuscan one makes a fresh, crisp white. The Sardinian one makes an amber, nutty wine aged for years in old barrels, closer to sherry. A third, Vernaccia Nera, is a red grape from the Marche.

Yes. Vernaccia di San Gimignano was granted the first DOC in Italy on 3 March 1966. It became a DOCG on 9 July 1993. The wine has been recorded in the town's archives since 1276.

Both are crisp Italian whites, but Vermentino is fuller, more herbal and comes from the coast of Sardinia, Liguria and Tuscany. Vernaccia is leaner, with chamomile and a bitter-almond finish, and comes only from the hills around San Gimignano.

At least 85%. Other non-aromatic white grapes can make up the rest, with Sauvignon and Riesling capped at 10% between them. Aromatic grapes such as Moscato and Traminer are banned. All the vineyards must be inside the municipality of San Gimignano.

Fried fish, seafood pasta, pappa al pomodoro, and simple roast chicken for a Riserva. The acidity handles oil and batter and the almond note likes salt. Keep the Sardinian Vernaccia di Oristano for pecorino, bottarga and honey desserts.

Explore by style

Wine styles made from Vernaccia

Jump to the editorial guide for each style this grape turns up in.

Keep exploring

More white grapes