Exploring Italy’s 2017 Rosatos

BY IAN D'AGATA | JUNE 7, 2018

Italy offers an amazing range of rosé wines, the permutations of which are like those of no other country in the world. The relentlessly hot growing season of 2017 posed challenges for winemakers and winery owners. Even so, readers will find plenty to choose from.

Italy offers an amazing range of rosé wines, the permutations of which are like those of no other country in the world. In “Looking at Italy Through Rosé Tinted Glasses,” published on Vinous in June of 2015, I described the remarkable gamut of pink wines made in Italy. In fact, while any pink wine in Italy is generically called Rosato (rosa or rosato is Italian for pink), there are actually many different kinds of Rosato wines made in the country. These can range from ultra-pale Chiarettos typical of the Lake Garda area to slightly darker Piedmont, Tuscan and Puglian Rosatos (the latter region is mainly famous for such wines, especially from the central Castel del Monte area and the southernmost part of the region called Salento), to the darkest of all Italian pink wines, the famous Cerasuolo d’Abruzzo.

The colorful world of Italian Rosato labels