Fiano white wine variety

Fiano wines

This is a strongly flavoured white grape variety which is used to make the highly regarded Fiano di Avellino in Campania in Southern Italy. Avellino is a wine region in the hills inland from Naples.

There are just a few producers of this variety in Australia. This is likely to change over the next few years as more and more grapegrowers and wineries react to the problems of climate change.

Global warming seems to be causing the vintage date of many vineyards to become earlier. Small increases in temperature over the course of the growing season can cause the grapes to ripen a week or two earlier.

In the 2007 Vintage in Australia some wineries were picking a month earlier than usual. The consequence is that the temperature is significantly higher during the last month of ripening, and this has an adverse effect on wine quality.

Some Australian vineyards and wineries are choosing later ripening varieties, such as Fiano, Aglianico and Vermentino, as a response to this problem.

What does Fiano wine taste like? De Long's Wine Grape Varietal Table lists the variety as having the potential to produce light weight wines of moderate to high acidity. The flavour profile is described as

Nutty, herbal, aromatic, with smoky spicy notes and hazelnuts

Fiano wines can be pared with a range of foods. Try them with seafoods, pasta dishes or other Italian style cuisine.

Wineries who use this variety in Australia include Coriole in the McLaren Vale wine region, Karanto Vineyards in Langhorne Creek, Parish Hill wines in the Adelaide Hills, Sutton Grange in the Bendigo wine region and the Murray Darling Collection.