Wine route
Amalfi cliff and Vesuvius loop
2 days, 120 km · 7 stops
Open the driveCampania · DOC
Campi Flegrei DOC Falanghina and Piedirosso from the Volcanic Bay West of Naples
Campi Flegrei DOC is the wine of the volcanic bay west of Naples. Falanghina makes its crisp, smoky dry whites. Piedirosso, known here as Per 'e Palummo, makes its soft, bright reds. The vines grow in volcanic sand around the craters of Pozzuoli, many still on their own roots. The name has been protected since 1994.
3
Wines live now
£15-£24
Price range today
2
UK retailers
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One denomination, 8 things it can say on the front. Colour first, then the qualifier.
On the label
Campi Flegrei Bianco
the everyday white blend
50 to 70% Falanghina
10.5% minimum alcohol
Falanghina with a helping hand from the other white grapes of Naples province.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Campi Flegrei Falanghina
the volcano's white
90% or more Falanghina
11% minimum alcohol
Most of the shelf: apple, pear and a smoky, salty finish from the volcanic sand.
In stock from £15.11 See the 2 bottles ↓On the label
Campi Flegrei Rosso
the red blend
50% or more Piedirosso, with at least 30% Aglianico
11.5% minimum alcohol
Aglianico gives the blend more grip than a pure Piedirosso.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Campi Flegrei Piedirosso
Per 'e Palummo, the pigeon's foot
90% or more Piedirosso
11.5% minimum alcohol
Light, soft and bright, with cherry and a puff of ash: the local red at its purest.
In stock from £23.50 See the 1 bottle ↓On the label
Campi Flegrei Piedirosso Riserva
the patient tier
2 years from 1 November after harvest
12% minimum alcohol
The only type that must wait. It shares the 75 cl bottle cap with the Passito.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Campi Flegrei Piedirosso Rosato
the pale one
90% or more Piedirosso
11.5% minimum alcohol
Pale pink to cherry, dry and salty; the rules describe it as soft and fresh.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Campi Flegrei Passito
the dried-grape wine, white or red
Falanghina or Piedirosso dried on the vine or after picking, white or red
15% or 17% total alcohol, white or red
Only 45 litres of wine from every 100 kilos of grapes, and no added concentration.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Campi Flegrei Falanghina Spumante
the sparkling one
Brut or extra dry from at least 90% Falanghina
11.5% minimum alcohol
The one Campi Flegrei label that does not have to show a vintage.
No bottles in stock right now
The boundary
Where it is
Everything on this page, the estates, the bottles, the sub-zones, sits inside this line.
Estate 1
La Sibilla
Visit →Bacoli · Campi Flegrei
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Denomination
Grapes Used
Campi Flegrei DOC zone
Estates you can visit Wine route in the zoneOutside the zone
The volcanic bay west of Naples. The line starts on the Licola coast at the top of Pozzuoli and rounds Quarto. It then cuts through the western streets of Marano and Naples and comes back to the sea at Marechiaro. South of it is all water: the Gulf of Pozzuoli and the Ischia channel. Bacoli and Monte di Procida hold the western tip, and the island of Procida, four kilometres offshore, is inside the zone whole. Ischia is not. The Campi Flegrei depression is a caldera, ground that sank after eruptions. The vineyards stand on volcanic ground, and at Agnano the vines climb the Astroni hills in terraces.
Inside the zone
7
Communes
1994
DOC since
101 ha
Under vine (2021)
60+
Volcanic vents opened in 39,000 years
9
Wine types
Click or tap a pin for its estate. The numbered pins match the estate cards below.
Towns worth knowing
Pozzuoli
Bacoli
Monte di Procida
Procida
Quarto
Naples itself is inside the line only at its western edge, around Agnano and Posillipo, and Marano only in part.
In the glass
What it tastes like, by style
One profile at a time, never blended into a single set of bars.
Green Apple
Pear
Elderflower
Burnt toast
Cherry
Violet
Geranium leaves
Smoky
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, one row group per style here, because Campi Flegrei writes its rules per colour.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Falanghina, Falanghina Passito and Spumante
FalanghinaAlone, the volcano's whiteat least 90%Other white grapes of Naples provinceOptional fillerup to 10%
Bianco
FalanghinaThe lead50 to 70%Other white grapes of Naples provinceThe balanceup to 50%
Piedirosso, Riserva, Rosato and Piedirosso Passito
Piedirosso (Per 'e Palummo)Alone, the pigeon's footat least 90%Other red grapes of Naples provinceOptional fillerup to 10%
Rosso
Piedirosso (Per 'e Palummo)The lead50 to 70%AglianicoThe grip30 to 50%Other red grapes of Naples provinceOptional fillerup to 20%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
Two grapes may put their name on the label at 90 per cent or more: Falanghina for whites, Piedirosso for reds.
Yields stop at 12 tonnes a hectare for whites, 10 for reds and 100 kilos of grapes may give at most 70 litres of wine, 45 for a Passito.
Damp valley floors are banned and only well-exposed vineyards may carry the vines.
The vintage must be on the label on every bottle except the sparkling.
Riserva and Passito come only in bottles up to 75 cl by rule, so there are no magnums.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Campi Flegrei costs in the UK
Every live Campi Flegrei listing, cheapest to dearest
3 wines · 2 retailers
By style, today
Falanghina
from £15.11
Piedirosso
from £23.50
Live prices, compared across 2 UK retailers.
Cellar doors · inside the zone
Estates you can visit
One estate inside the zone opens its doors today. A small list, honestly kept: only working cellars with confirmed visits appear here.
No estates match these filters. Clear a filter to see more.
Experiences in the Campi Flegrei zone
Cellar experiences here average around €35. These are the strongest fits for this page.
Tasting & tour
Tradition
La Sibilla
The experience begins with a walk through the vineyards near the Baia hillside, passing by Cruna DeLago, up to the new Piedirosso plantings.…
1 h 30 From €20 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Selection
La Sibilla
Begin with a walk through the vineyards near the Baia hillside, passing by Cruna DeLago, until you reach the new Piedirosso plantings. Conti…
1 h 30 From €35 pp
Book via
Winalist
Tasting & tour
Search
La Sibilla
The experience begins with a walk through the vineyards near the Baia hillside, passing by the Cruna DeLago, and up to the new Piedirosso pl…
2 h From €50 pp
Book via
Winalist
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No one publishes a vintage chart for Campi Flegrei. Quality here is judged wine by wine and producer by producer, not year by year.
Drink the Falanghina within three years and the Piedirosso young and lightly chilled.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Campi Flegrei is made
The rules name three grapes, but only two may put their name on the label. A wine labelled Falanghina must be at least 90 per cent Falanghina. A wine labelled Piedirosso, or Per 'e Palummo, must be at least 90 per cent Piedirosso. The plain Bianco takes 50 to 70 per cent Falanghina. The plain Rosso takes at least half Piedirosso and at least 30 per cent Aglianico. Yields are capped at 12 tonnes of grapes per hectare for the whites and 10 for the reds. Only well-exposed sites may carry vines. Damp valley floors are banned. Falanghina must reach 11 per cent alcohol, the reds 11.5 and the Bianco 10.5. No type has to age, with one exception. A Piedirosso Riserva waits two years from the first of November after harvest. Both grapes may also be dried for a Passito, sweet or dry, and Falanghina may be made sparkling. The wine must be made, aged and bottled inside the zone, or in the whole of a commune the zone only partly covers. Bottlers who traditionally worked outside the zone keep the permits they already held. Every label except the sparkling must carry the vintage.
In depth
The Campi Flegrei are a caldera, a sunken volcanic field on the west side of Naples. More than sixty volcanic vents have opened here in the last 39,000 years. The ground still rises and falls, a slow movement known as bradyseism. The soil it left behind is ash, pumice and yellow tuff, loose and sandy.
That sand is why the vines are special. The vine louse that wiped out most of Europe's old vineyards cannot live in it. So many Campi Flegrei vines still stand on their own roots, with no grafted American rootstock beneath them. Around Lake Averno the old vines grow this way, and the traditional Puteolan training system keeps plants that are more than a century old.
The wine is older still. Pliny the Elder mentions a colombino wine from Puteoli, today's Pozzuoli, and the rules suggest it may be the ancestor of Per 'e Palummo. Under Charles II of Anjou the wine de Putheolo was bought for the royal table in Naples. The DOC itself dates from 1994.
It is a small name. About 101 hectares were under vine in 2021, and the zone makes around 4,500 hectolitres a year, close to 600,000 bottles. Falanghina is thought to take its name from the falanga, the wooden stake the vine was tied to. Two estates carry the flag on UK shelves. La Sibilla, in Bacoli, opens its cellar for tastings and tours by appointment. Agnanum, run by Raffaele Moccia, farms 15 hectares of sandy terraces on the Astroni crater at Agnano, land his father Gennaro began restoring in 1960. Its first bottled vintage was 2002.
On the table
What to eat with Campi Flegrei
Falanghina wants the Bay of Naples on the plate: mussels, fried seafood, pizza marinara and a Caprese. Piedirosso takes the tomato-led pasta and pizza.
In-depth guide
Campi Flegrei, answered
It is the DOC wine of the volcanic fields west of Naples. The zone takes in Pozzuoli, Bacoli, Monte di Procida, Quarto and the island of Procida, plus part of Marano and the western edge of Naples. The whites are Falanghina and the reds Piedirosso. The name has been protected since 1994.
No. Lacryma Christi is the wine of Vesuvio DOC, on the east side of Naples. Campi Flegrei sits on the west side of the city, on a different volcano. Both zones grow Falanghina and Piedirosso, but the name and the ground are different.
Pigeon's foot, in Neapolitan dialect. The stalks of the Piedirosso grape turn red as the bunch ripens, the colour of a pigeon's leg. Piedirosso is the Italian form of the same idea, red foot. Either name may appear on a Campi Flegrei label.
Because the soil is volcanic sand, ash and pumice, and the phylloxera louse cannot live in it. Almost everywhere else in Europe vines are grafted onto American roots to survive the pest. Here many vines were never grafted, and the rules record old plants around Lake Averno still growing on their own roots.
Seafood from the bay: mussels with black pepper, fried anchovies and squid, a pizza marinara or a Caprese salad. The wine is dry with fresh acidity and a smoky, salty edge, so it cuts through oil and salt without fighting the fish. Piedirosso, the red, is better with tomato-led pasta and pizza.
Drink the Falanghina within two to three years of the vintage, while its apple and pear fruit is fresh. The Piedirosso is made to drink young, lightly chilled. Only the Piedirosso Riserva, which waits two years before sale, is built to keep a little longer.
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