Wine route
Amalfi cliff and Vesuvius loop
2 days, 120 km · 7 stops
Open the driveCampania · DOC
Costa d'Amalfi DOC The Cliff-Terrace Wines of the Amalfi Coast, Explained
Costa d'Amalfi is the DOC of the cliff terraces between Vietri sul Mare and Positano. Its whites lead with Falanghina and Biancolella, its reds and rosés with Piedirosso. Three villages, Furore, Ravello and Tramonti, may put their own name on the label. Only about a hundred football pitches of vines exist, on dry-stone terraces too steep for any machine.
14
Wines live now
£22-£98
Price range today
6
UK retailers
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One denomination, 6 things it can say on the front. Colour first, then the qualifier.
On the label
Costa d'Amalfi Bianco
the coast's white
40% or more Falanghina and/or Biancolella
10% minimum alcohol
Lemon, peach and sea-stone: the wine the terraces are famous for.
In stock from £21.50 See the 6 bottles ↓On the label
Costa d'Amalfi Rosso
the savoury red
40% or more Piedirosso
10.5% minimum alcohol
Mid-weight and savoury, black olive beside the blackberry.
In stock from £23.70 See the 3 bottles ↓On the label
Costa d'Amalfi Rosato
the same grapes, pressed pale
40% or more Piedirosso
10.5% minimum alcohol
Dry, fresh and fruity by rule: strawberry and citrus for the fried-fish end of the table.
In stock from £22 See the 2 bottles ↓On the label
Rosso Riserva
the patient tier, villages only
2 years from 1 November, one of them in wood
11.5% minimum alcohol
Only a village-named red may wait the two years and earn the word.
In stock from £35 See the 3 bottles ↓On the label
Bianco or Rosso Passito
sun-dried, rare, white or red
16% potential alcohol from dried grapes
17% minimum total, dry to sweet
Dried on the vine or the rack, in either colour; none on the UK shelf today.
No bottles in stock right now
On the label
Spumante
bottle-fermented, rarer still
24 months on the lees from 1 November
11.5% minimum, extra brut or brut
Allowed on paper, metodo classico only; the shelf carries none.
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.
Costa d'Amalfi DOC zone
Wine route in the zoneOutside the zone
The Salerno side of the Sorrento peninsula: 13 towns strung along the cliffs from Vietri sul Mare in the east to Positano in the west. The Lattari mountains rise behind them to Monte Faito at 1,270 metres. Vines sit on dry-stone terraces below 650 metres. Three villages may name the wine, and each name covers a group of towns. Furore, Praiano and Conca dei Marini are the cliff villages west of Amalfi, and Amalfi itself joins them in the Furore group. Ravello and Scala sit high above the sea just east of Amalfi, with Minori and Atrani on the shore below them. Tramonti lies inland in the hills where the old Tintore vines grow, and Maiori, on the coast, shares its name.
Inside the zone
13
Communes
3
Named villages
650 m
Highest vineyards allowed
69 ha
Under vine (2021)
1995
DOC since
12 t/ha
Yield cap, whites
Towns worth knowing
Amalfi
Furore
Ravello
Tramonti
Positano
Maiori
Furore, Ravello and Tramonti may name the wine, and their three groups cover ten of the thirteen towns. Vietri sul Mare, Cetara and Positano have no village name and sell as plain Costa d'Amalfi.
In the glass
What it tastes like, by style
One profile at a time, never blended into a single set of bars.
Lemon
White peach
Orange blossom
Wet stones
Blackberry
Blueberry
Olive
Cherry
Strawberry
Red forest berries
Citrusy fruit
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, one row group per style here, because Costa d'Amalfi writes its rules per colour.
Grape & its role
Share of the blend
050100%
Costa d'Amalfi Bianco
Falanghina and/or BiancolellaThe lead, alone or togetherat least 40%Other local whitesFill the balance, Pepella, Ripoli, Fenile and Ginestra among themup to 60%
Costa d'Amalfi Rosso and Rosato
PiedirossoThe lead, locally Per 'e Palummoat least 40%Aglianico and/or SciascinosoColour and gripup to 60%Other local redsFill the balanceup to 40%
Furore Bianco Furore onlyFurore, Praiano, Conca dei Marini and Amalfi. Only grapes grown in those four towns may carry the Furore name.
Fenile, Ginestra, Pepella, RipoliThe old coast whites, alone or together40 to 60%FalanghinaWith Biancolella at least 40% togetherat least 30%BiancolellaWith Falanghina at least 40% togetherat least 10%Other local whitesFill the balanceup to 20%
Tramonti Rosso and Rosato Tramonti onlyTramonti, inland in the Lattari hills, and Maiori on the coast. Only grapes grown in those two towns may carry the Tramonti name.
PiedirossoThe lead, a lighter minimum than the base30 to 80%TintoreThe village's own dark grape, compulsoryat least 20%Aglianico and/or SciascinosoColour and gripup to 50%Other local redsFill the balanceup to 30%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
Nothing above 650 metres only hillside plots with good exposure may join the register.
A village name tightens the rules 9 to 10 tonnes a hectare and a full degree more alcohol than the base.
Riserva is a village privilege reds from Furore, Ravello or Tramonti, two years from 1 November, one in wood.
Tramonti must use Tintore at least 20% of the village's own dark grape in every red and rosé.
The village name is optional the same terraces may sell under the plain Costa d'Amalfi label.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Editor's cellar
Bottles to try, and what Costa d'Amalfi costs in the UK
Every live Costa d'Amalfi listing, cheapest to dearest
14 wines · 6 retailers
By style, today
Bianco
from £21.50
Rosso
from £23.70
Rosato
from £22
Riserva
from £35
Village-named
from £23.70
Live prices, compared across 6 UK retailers.
Three names allowed on the label
The villages
The rulebook names three villages, each standing for a small group of towns, each with lower yields and a little more alcohol than the base wine. Furore and Tramonti also have blends of their own.
Furore
Fiorduva countryFurore, Praiano, Conca dei Marini and Amalfi: Amalfi town and the cliff villages west of it. A Furore Bianco must carry 40 to 60% of the old coast whites Fenile, Ginestra, Pepella and Ripoli.
Ravello
The high terracesRavello, Scala, Minori and Atrani: two hill towns and the two shore towns below them, just east of Amalfi. Same blends as the base wines, but 9 to 10 tonnes a hectare and a Riserva for the red.
Tramonti
Tintore countryTramonti, inland in the Lattari hills, and Maiori on the coast. Tramonti reds and rosés must carry at least 20% Tintore, the village's own dark grape, on top of Piedirosso.
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
No denomination-wide vintage chart is published for Costa d'Amalfi. The available sources define the denomination and review individual wines, so quality is tracked producer by producer rather than through a maintained year-by-year table.
Drink the whites within three or four years for their salt and citrus; a sommelier association's tasting in June 2026 poured Fiorduva back to its 2013 vintage. Reds and Riservas are best from three to eight years.
What to check instead
The village: where a wine comes from inside the zone changes what is in the glass. See them above.
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Costa d'Amalfi is made
The base white must be at least 40 per cent Falanghina or Biancolella, alone or together. The base red and rosé take at least 40 per cent Piedirosso, with Aglianico and Sciascinoso allowed up to 60 per cent. Yields are capped at 12 tonnes a hectare for whites and 11 for reds and rosés. No vineyard may sit above 650 metres. The base white must reach 10 per cent alcohol, the red and rosé 10.5. The three villages tighten the yield and alcohol rules: 9 to 10 tonnes a hectare, 11 per cent for a white and 11.5 for a red or rosé. A Furore Bianco must also carry 40 to 60 per cent of the local Fenile, Ginestra, Pepella and Ripoli. Tramonti reds and rosés need at least 20 per cent Tintore. A village red kept two years from 1 November, one of them in wood, may be called Riserva. Passito and bottle-fermented spumante types exist on paper, and the UK shelf carries neither today.
In depth
Vines have grown on these slopes for well over a thousand years. The DOC rulebook quotes land deeds from 860 AD that already name vineyards along the coast. It adds that the Republic of Amalfi shipped the coast's wines by sea to other parts of Italy. In the 1600s and 1700s vines and citrus groves were the coast's main crops. The DOC itself is young. It was created in August 1995 and last amended in 2014.
The terraces are the story. Dry-stone walls, called macere locally, hold pockets of soil on limestone cliffs that drop into the Gulf of Salerno. The walls stand three to four metres high, and some reach eight to ten. The rulebook allows only hillside plots with good exposure, and nothing above 650 metres. Vines are trained on pergolas and wires. Everything is picked by hand, because no machine can reach the plots.
Cantine Marisa Cuomo was founded in Furore in 1980 by Marisa Cuomo and Andrea Ferraioli. It farms about 20 hectares of these terraces. Its Fiorduva comes from plots at 200 to 550 metres, facing south over the sea. The wine blends 30 per cent Fenile, 30 per cent Ginestra and 40 per cent Ripoli. The grapes are picked overripe in late October and fermented in oak barrels, in a cellar dug into the dolomite rock. The producer lists an Oscar as Italy's best white of 2006 and Gambero Rosso's Tre Bicchieri among its awards. Ettore Sammarco has made wine in Ravello since 1962. Tenuta San Francesco, set up in Tramonti in 2004, works ungrafted Tintore vines that survived phylloxera.
The whites taste of lemon, citron, white peach and sea-washed stone, with the salt of the coast on the finish. The reds are mid-weight and savoury, black olive and caper beside blackberry. The rosés are bright and dry. In 2021 the whole DOC had only about a hundred football pitches under vine. That is why the bottles are never cheap: every one is a small crop from a hard place.
On the table
What to eat with Costa d'Amalfi
Salt and lemon country: the whites want mussels, grilled fish and a pizza marinara, the reds a rabbit ragù or aubergine parmigiana, and the dry rosé sits between the two.
In-depth guide
Costa d'Amalfi, answered
The whites are built on Falanghina and Biancolella, which must make up at least 40 per cent together. The reds and rosés take at least 40 per cent Piedirosso, with Aglianico and Sciascinoso allowed up to 60 per cent. Furore whites add the old coast grapes Fenile, Ginestra, Pepella and Ripoli, and Tramonti reds must include at least 20 per cent Tintore.
They are the three villages allowed to add their name to Costa d'Amalfi. Each name stands for a small group of towns, ten of the thirteen in all. Each comes with tighter rules: lower yields, a full degree more alcohol, and its own blend in Furore and Tramonti. Only village-named reds may be called Riserva. The village name is optional, so a plain Costa d'Amalfi may come from the same slopes.
Both, plus a rosé. The whites are the coast's calling card: for its Fiorduva, a Furore white, Cantine Marisa Cuomo lists an Oscar as Italy's best white of 2006. The reds are mid-weight and savoury, and the rosés are made from the same Piedirosso blend pressed pale. Passito and sparkling types are allowed but rarely seen.
Fiorduva is the flagship white of Cantine Marisa Cuomo in Furore. It blends 30 per cent Fenile, 30 per cent Ginestra and 40 per cent Ripoli from terraces at 200 to 550 metres above the sea. The grapes are picked overripe in late October and fermented in oak barrels. It tastes of apricot, broom flowers and candied fruit, and vertical tastings of it run back more than ten years.
The whites are made for the coast's own table: mussels, grilled fish and seafood pasta, with lemon on everything. The reds suit rabbit ragù, pork chops and aubergine parmigiana. The dry rosé sits between the two and handles fried food well.
There is very little of it and it is hard to make. In 2021 the whole DOC had only about a hundred football pitches under vine, on dry-stone terraces where every job is done by hand. Yields are capped at 11 to 12 tonnes a hectare, and lower still in the villages. Prices reflect that, and the best bottles from Furore sell for £50 or more.
Explore more Campania
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