The Winery De Maldè Az. Agricola di Paola Pagani of Lombardia

Discovering the wine region of Lombardia

Lombardy is one of Italy's largest and most populous regions, located in the north-central Part of the country. It's home to a handful of popular and well-known wine styles, including the Bright, cherry-scented Valtellina and the high-quality Sparkling wines Franciacorta and Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico. Lombardy is Italy's industrial powerhouse, with the country's second largest city (Milan) as its regional capital. Despite this, the region has vast tracts of unspoiled countryside, home to many small wineries that produce a significant portion of the region's annual wine production of 1.

2 million hectoliters. A vast and geographically Complex region, Lombardy is well positioned to offer a wide range of wine styles. There are five DOCGs, 21 DOCs and 15 PGIs. The Oltrepo Pavese area stands out as one of the most important and best known, not only for its sparkling wine Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico DOCG, but also, more recently, for its Pinot Grigio, which since 2008 has its own independent DOC (Oltrepo Pavese Pinot Grigio).

Franciacorta, the second of Lombardy's two DOCG sparkling wines, comes from the booming and highly regarded vineyards between Brescia and Lake Iseo.