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Molise · DOC · Regional umbrella
Molise DOC is the region-wide label for the wines of Molise, one of Italy's smallest regions. It was approved in 1998 and covers red, white, rosato, sparkling, novello, passito and Riserva wines from hill vineyards in the provinces of Campobasso and Isernia. Montepulciano makes its plain Rosso and Rosato, and fifteen other grapes may be named on the label.
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Decode the label
Three levels of Italian wine law, read through Molise's own denominations.
DOC
Four DOCs share the two provinces. Biferno and Pentro di Isernia date from 1983, each with its own zone and fixed blends. Tintilia del Molise covers the region's own red grape. Molise DOC is the widest of the four: listed communes of both provinces and fifteen named grapes.
You are hereIGT
Two IGTs sit under the DOCs. Osco, or Terre degli Osci, covers the whole province of Campobasso, and Rotae the whole province of Isernia. They are the labels for blends and grapes the DOC rules do not list.
Molise DOC once carried a Montepulciano type of its own. Tuscany, the province of Siena and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano consortium objected to the use of the name. In October 2000 the ministry struck the pairing out. The grape is still the base of every Molise Rosso, Rosato and red spumante; the label simply may not say so. Biferno, Pentro di Isernia and Tintilia del Molise keep their own zones and rulebooks; the region-wide DOC is the frame around them.
What DOCG, DOC and IGT mean in Italian law is set out once, in Italian wine zones explained.
It is the Protected Designation of Origin that covers both provinces of Molise, Campobasso and Isernia. A bottle with this label was grown, made and aged inside the zone, from the grapes and to the minimums the rulebook sets. The label may also put the grape first, as in Falanghina del Molise.
Fifteen: Aglianico, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Falanghina, Fiano, Greco Bianco, Malvasia, Merlot, Moscato Bianco, Pinot Bianco, Pinot Grigio, Pinot Nero, Sangiovese, Sauvignon and Trebbiano. The named grape must be at least 85% of the wine.
Because the rules forbid it. The plain Rosso, Rosato, Novello and red spumante are at least 85% Montepulciano. But Tuscany, the province of Siena and the Vino Nobile di Montepulciano consortium objected to the grape's name on a Molise label. A decree of October 2000 removed it.
A Rosso or an Aglianico aged for at least two years from 1 November of the harvest, with six months or more in wooden casks. It needs 12.5% alcohol, grapes picked at 12% potential strength, and it must be sold in a glass bottle under a cork.
Yes. Quality spumante is allowed in white, red and rosato, dry for most and sweet for Moscato and Malvasia. Chardonnay, Fiano, Malvasia, Merlot, Moscato, Pinot Bianco and Pinot Grigio may be frizzante. Falanghina and Moscato Bianco may be made as passito from dried grapes, at 14% alcohol with real sweetness.
Not any more. Tintilia, the region's own red grape, was given its own DOC, Tintilia del Molise, on 1 June 2011. An older bottle may still read Molise DOC Tintilia; a current one reads Tintilia del Molise.
Very little. Italian Wine Central counts about 177 hectares of vines in 2021, roughly 250 football pitches, and an average of about 630,000 bottles a year. Di Majo Norante is the producer you will find in the UK. Tenimenti Grieco's Falanghina comes and goes.
The territory
Everything drawn here can also, or instead, carry the Molise DOC label.
The territory is the administrative region, nothing tighter. Every stricter denomination on this map is drawn inside that same line, which is why a grower in one of them can bottle under either name in the same harvest.
None of these zones belongs to Molise DOC. They sit in the same territory and answer to their own rulebooks.
Italy's quietest wine region: Tintilia rediscovered on Apennine slopes, Montepulciano ripened by Adriatic light, and Biferno reds anchored above the Termoli coast.
An umbrella of this size covers every style of still and sparkling wine. Each link below opens a filtered listing.
Editorially selected bottlings. 4 from 4.
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Sibling appellations that share Molise’s soil and sky.
20 wines
6 denominations
