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Appellation · Italy

Fiano di Avellino

A hill appellation inland from Naples making one of southern Italy’s few genuinely ageworthy dry whites.

Fiano di Avellino DOCGmediterraneanmoderate
What to expect in the glass

Dry, medium-to-full bodied white with pear, hazelnut, white flowers and a smoky, waxy finish. Firm acidity and real ageing capacity.

About Fiano di Avellino

Fiano di Avellino is grown in the hills of Irpinia at 350–650 m, on volcanic and clay soils, well inland from the Neapolitan coast.

The variety is old — Pliny recorded a vitis apiana here, a grape said to attract bees — and it was down to a few hectares by the 1940s before a deliberate revival.

What makes it unusual is that it ages. Young Fiano is nutty and floral; at five to ten years it develops honey, hazelnut and a smoky, waxy depth, which very few southern Italian whites do.

What the name means

Legal name
Fiano di Avellino DOCG
Type
Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG)
Set by
MASAF
Recognised
2003
Regulates
Origin, plus grape varieties, maximum yields, minimum ageing.

Everything a DOC controls, plus a compulsory analytical and tasting examination before bottling and a numbered state seal on the neck. The tier above DOC in regulatory strictness, which is not the same as guaranteed quality.

Worth knowing

A minimum of 85% Fiano.

Grapes

Wines from here

Rules worth knowing

Confirmed in the EU register

Fiano di Avellino is registered as a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO), file number PDO-IT-A0232, protected at EU level since 1982.

Article 107 of Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013

Specification published: Official Journal L, 2025/1086, 3.6.2025 · Official Journal

Only the rules that change what to expect in the glass or on the label. WineHQ does not reproduce production specifications, and each entry carries the date it was last checked because appellation rules change.

The designation is confirmed above. WineHQ has not read this appellation’s production specification, so it publishes no yields, ageing minima or permitted-variety lists for it — those come from the document linked above, not from a summary of it.

What to eat, and how to serve it

Derived from this region’s signature styles. Each is listed separately, because a region does not have one serving temperature.

Fiano di Avellino

Serve at 1012°C (lightly chilled).

Try with mozzarella, fillet steak or salmon.

Where to go next

Places worth trying if you like this one — neighbours, rivals, and the obvious step across.

  • Greco di TufoA small Irpinian appellation on sulphur-bearing tufa, making the firmest and most structured white in Campania.
  • TaurasiAglianico grown high in the Campanian hills — the "Barolo of the South", and a comparison that for once holds up.
  • CampaniaSouthern Italy’s most serious region for indigenous varieties, with Aglianico, Fiano and Greco all grown on volcanic soils.

Sources

Sources consulted