Wine
White Orvieto is composed primarily of Grechetto and Trebbiano and a blend of Malvasia, Drupeggio, Verdello and Canaiolo bianco grapes. Grechetto is valued for the fruitiness and weight that it brings to the wine; some of the most highly rated examples of Orvieto have a high concentration of Grechetto. The wine today is radically different from the historical sweet Orvieto, with off-dry and sweet wines accounting for less than five percent of total production. In addition to the traditional grape varieties listed, some Orvieto producers have begun experimenting with non-DOC Vino da Tavola wines made from Riesling and Sauvignon blanc.
According to Joseph Bastianich and David Lynch, the Orvieto wine world tends to be divided into two camps: estates which make traditional neutral and Trebbiano-dominated wines, and estates which take advantage of the liberal DOC blending policy and use as much of other permitted grapes as possible. Under the Orvieto DOC regulations, wines may contain between 40% to 60% Trebbiano Toscano, 15% to 25% Verdello, and up to 20% maximum of Grechetto, Canaiolo Bianco (Drupeggio) and/or Malvasia Toscana for the remainder.
Read more about this topic: Orvieto DOC
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