Wines made from Grillo grapes of Molise
Discover the best wines made with Grillo as a single variety or as a blend of Molise.
A very ancient grape variety still grown today in western Sicily. Very often associated with catarratto and inzolia, it produces the famous Marsala liqueur wine. It is also increasingly being vinified as a single variety and produces excellent dry wines full of freshness and fruitiness. Grillo is believed to be the result of an intra-fertile cross between catarratto and Muscat of Alexandria or zibibbo, obtained in 1869 by Antonino Mendola. It is represented by two biotypes that can be easily recognized, but it seems that winegrowers attach little importance to them. Little known in other Italian regions - in Liguria it is known as "rossese bianco" - it can also be found in Australia and South Africa. It is not widely grown in France, although it is interesting because of its ability to withstand hot climates and drought, and to ripen quite late.
Molise is a mountainous region in South-central Italy, delegated as DOC in 1998. It is a relatively small region, especially when compared to its neighbors Abruzzo and Lazio to the North and Campania and Puglia to the south. Molise is considered an obscure region, since winemaking dates back to 500 BC, but it only gained independence as a wine region in the latter half of the 20th century. Overshadowed by its neighbor, Abruzzo, of which it was politically a Part until 1963 (Abruzzi e Molise), Molise finally got three of its own DOCs, Biferno and Pentro di Isernia, in the 1980s, then Tintilia del Molise in 2011.