Calabria · DOC
Greco di Bianco DOC Calabria's Sun-Dried Greek-Heritage Passito
The southernmost passito of Calabria, born where Magna Graecia first planted vines. Greco di Bianco DOC is the oldest registered denomination of Reggio Calabria. Just 22 hectares of sun-dried Greco Bianco grapes sit on the Ionian coast around the village of Bianco. They yield a scarce amber dessert wine. It belongs to the same Mediterranean tradition as Pantelleria and Vin Santo.
Decode the label
What the label tells you
One word on the front changes the ageing, the strength and the price.
On the label
Greco di Bianco
one wine, one town, one method
Italy's south-easternmost great sweet wine: sun-dried Greco Bianco from the town of Bianco, orange peel and honey over a bitter-almond finish.
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.
A few kilometres of Ionian coast at the very toe of Italy: the commune of Bianco and part of Casignana, in the province of Reggio Calabria. The vines face the sea on terraces where the grapes are laid out to dry after picking, a method the Greek colonists brought here and the town never dropped.
Inside the zone
Towns worth knowing
The wine is named for the town, not the colour: Bianco sits between the sea and the Aspromonte foothills.
In the glass
What it tastes like
Orange blossom
Honey
Apricot
Bergamot
Almond
Caramel
Citrusy fruit
The disciplinare
The rules that define it
The same table on every denomination page, straight from the production rules.
Greco BiancoThe ancient Greek import, dried on racks by the Ionianat least 95%
Other local whitesA sliver of toleranceup to 5%Solid means the rules demand it. Striped means optional, up to that amount. The words on the right say the same rule.
The whole DOC is one passito no dry version, no red, no second tier: a single sweet wine.
Only 45% of the grapes may become wine the drying loss is written into the rules.
17% total with 14% fermented the rest stays as the sun's own sugar.
Two communes on the Ionian Bianco and a slice of Casignana, in Reggio Calabria province.
Among Italy's oldest wine traditions the drying method came with Greek settlers to this exact coast.
Ageing and alcohol minimums per tier are in the label guide above.
Vintage provenance
Why there is no vintage chart
Greco di Bianco DOC has just 22 hectares under vine and total annual production around 500 cases. No denomination-wide vintage chart is currently published. Quality is tracked producer by producer rather than through a maintained annata table.
Sun-dried and fortified by nature: vintages blur, and a decade of cellar does it no harm.
What to check instead
The producer: quality here is tracked estate by estate rather than year by year.
How Greco di Bianco is made
Greco Bianco grapes must be at least 95 percent of the blend. They come from low-lying vineyards, no higher than 210 metres. They grow around the towns of Bianco and Casignana. The bunches are laid on graticci, the traditional cane mats set out in the Ionian sun. Some are dried in forced-air chambers instead. The berries lose up to 35 percent of their weight before pressing. Fermentation is slow. Finished alcohol settles around 14 percent, with plenty of sugar left and a potential of 17 percent. The DOC rules require roughly one year of ageing. Release follows on November 1st of the year after harvest. Total output sits near 45 hectolitres a year. That is around 500 cases across the entire DOC, or roughly 5,985 bottles.
In depth
On the table
What to eat with Greco di Bianco
The home country leads; global pairings that genuinely work follow.
In-depth guide
Greco di Bianco, answered
Greco di Bianco is a sweet, amber-coloured passito DOC from the Calabrian town of Bianco. It is made from sun-dried Greco Bianco grapes. It was the first denomination registered in the province of Reggio Calabria, approved on 18 June 1980. It remains one of the smallest in Italy, with around 22 hectares under vine.
No. Greco di Bianco is a sweet passito from Calabria, made from Greco Bianco. Greco di Tufo DOCG is a dry white from Avellino in Campania, made from a different grape called Greco. The two share a name but not a grape, a region or a style.
Greco Bianco, locally also called Greco di Gerace, must make up at least 95 percent of the blend. Greek colonists likely brought the grape to the Ionian coast from the seventh century BC. It was historically known as aminea, meaning 'not red'.
Expect a deep amber colour. The aromas are intense: orange blossom, dried apricot, candied citrus, honey and almond. The palate is sweet and full-bodied, balanced by warm Mediterranean acidity. The finish is long, with the salty whisper of the nearby Ionian Sea.
Pair it with mature blue-veined cheeses, and with almond and citrus pastries such as Calabrian mostaccioli or Sicilian cassatelle. Walnut tarts and bergamot panna cotta also work. It stands up to dried-fruit desserts and lightly spiced foie gras too.
Greco Bianco bunches dry in the late-summer sun on graticci, the traditional cane mats. Forced-air drying chambers are the alternative. The bunches lose up to 35 percent of their weight. The concentrated must is then pressed and slowly fermented. The wine ages for around a year before release on 1 November of the year following harvest.
Very rare. The whole DOC produces only around 45 hectolitres a year on average. That is roughly 500 cases for the entire denomination. The wines are largely sold close to the source in Reggio Calabria, and few bottles ever reach UK retailers.
Explore more Calabria
Same region only: the denominations Greco di Bianco drinkers reach for next.
