The surge of Italian grape varieties in Australia could give one the impression that all those vines have been championed in Italy for centuries, finding their unique pockets of best expression and maintaining their place, just as pinot noir and chardonnay have in Burgundy, or riesling has in the Mosel. The reality is that many Italian grapes that are now vital symbols of their regions were almost snuffed out of existence.
Grapes such as nebbiolo and sangiovese have never been under any great threat, always being totemic symbols of Italian wine, but many others – such as arneis, greco, pecorino and fiano – were pushed towards extinction in the latter half of the 20th Century, and some are only just properly recovering.
Italian vineyards – along with much of Europe – had been savaged by phylloxera (an American louse that destroys vines) in the 19th century, wiping out many traditional vineyards and threatening the future for varieties that had been grown for hundreds, and in many cases, thousands of years. When time came to plant again, those varieties that had perceived limitations were largely excluded.
“It’s totally a winemaker’s grape. It will do anything from steely or aromatic crisp dry whites to lees-aged, textural, oak-influenced wines that drink well up to 10 years. Skin contact also works well for fiano, either short or long. Basically it can do anything. I think fiano will become a major white grape for Aussie viticulture.”
A tendency to produce naturally low yields saw fiano – a Campanian white grape – shunned in favour of high-yielding and generally reliable varieties, even if they were intrinsically less characterful. As technologically produced wines became possible, high yields were the key to profitability in what was an industrial revolution in wine that churned out blandly pleasing wines. That period saw Italian wine garner an international audience, but in the process, it was beginning to lose some of its identity.
What replaced traditional vines across Italy depended on the region, but in many cases popular local grapes like sangiovese and montepulciano were planted more broadly, while the somewhat nondescript but bountiful trebbiano took up more than its fair share of vineyard space. French varieties also made inroads, which was enhanced with the global obsession with cabernet and chardonnay in the late 20th century.
Those ancient and almost forgotten varieties needed their champions.
Fiano’s white knight
In the case of fiano, it took the efforts of Antonio Mastroberardino to almost single-handedly revive its fortunes, while his work with greco was similarly celebrated, and arguably even more so with aglianico, where he championed single-site bottlings, releasing three vineyard-specific Taurasi Riservas in 1968 – a first for southern Italy, and a landmark moment that propelled the aglianico grape onto the world stage.
Mastroberardino had considerable success, but he was firmly swimming against the stream for decades before a broad appreciation for the spectrum of the best indigenous varieties again found favour, making more meaningful international breakthroughs in the 1990s, when Fiano di Avellino, Greco di Tufo and Taurasi all become celebrated regional wines.
The Mastroberardino family settled in the town of Atripalda, Irpinia, in 1878, building the estate up over the years, before decades of economic hardship and the catastrophe of World War II saw it all but destroyed. Once Antonio Mastroberardino took the reins, he set about rebuilding the family business in concert with reviving local winegrowing traditions.
A rebirth
Mastroberardino had made his first fiano in 1945, picking bunches from stray vines he found here and there. That first vintage was a mere 30 bottles, but it set in train his desire to revive the fortunes of the grape. That saw him buy up remnant vineyards and propagate vines from cuttings taken off those old vines, as well as advancing his winemaking methods to enshrine fiano grown in Avellino as a world-class wine.
In the 1960s and ’70s, technology was being employed to make bright but somewhat industrial wines that took the world by storm. But that technology also enabled Mastroberardino to present clear varietal fiano – and greco – that would appeal to international tastes, with some ageing in small oak also adding to the appeal at the time.
In 1978, the DOC for Fiano di Avellino was granted (becoming a DOCG in 2003), somewhat cementing the future for the grape. It was not until the 90s that other producers in Irpinia started to make their mark, but they were already established as growers of local varieties, and while much of southern Italy fell into the arms of the key French varieties – especially chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon – Campania pursued a largely indigenous path.
Today, Avellino has some 430 hectares of vines on the limestone and volcanic soils of the region, with an elevation between 400 and 700 metres. That elevation, coupled with a continental climate (warm days but cool nights) and the cooling influence of the Apennine Mountains make the zone a cool one, though with abundant sunshine. The wines naturally vary, with some lower lying vineyards on soil with more clay that make richer wines, while those more elevated can have a distinct smoky minerality from the sulphur-rich soils, and the wines tend to be fine and crisp.
Fiano spreads its wings
It was not until the 1990s that fiano was seen as a serious prospect outside Campania, with its adaptability to warmer condition proven in lower-lying and warmer areas, such as Cilento on the coast in Campania’s south. While the flavours certainly become richer, tropical even, fiano holds its acidity particularly well in warm climates, maintaining freshness in the finished wines.
That suitability to warm and hot conditions saw fiano succeed in the heel of Italy’s boot, in Puglia, as well as becoming a logical choice for Sicilian vineyards. Today, about 31 per cent of Italy’s fiano plantings are split between those regions, while Campania accounts for 65 per cent of the 1,377 hectares (at last count). Unsurprisingly a smattering exists in Basilicata, which is wedged between Campania and Puglia, as well as further down the boot in Calabria and further north in Molise on the east coast.
Perhaps most notably, Diego Planeta planted the grape for his ambitious eponymous endeavour in Sicily. Along with French red varieties and the tried and trusted nero d’avola, Planeta planted a raft of experimental grapes to find the best fit for sites across the island. He tested some 60 varieties in all and is seen as being largely responsible for championing fiano there from a vineyard in Menfi on the west coast.
Planeta’s ‘Cometa’ was first released in 2000, and it couldn’t have been more different to the classic wines made in Irpinia. At the time, Diego Planeta was very much riding a wave of modernism, making intense fruit-froward styles and often with a dose of oak from French barriques, including in the ‘Cometa’. Style aside, Planeta proved that fiano could thrive in hot conditions, retain acidity, and also that it could age – one of his missions, as few native Sicilian white varieties do.
In 2001, Nicolas Belfrage, the renowned English expert on Italian wines, noted that experiments with fiano were occurring in Sicily, Puglia and Basilicata. “Next thing you know it will be an international star, I don’t think,” he wrote in ‘Brunello to Zibibbo’ his landmark work on the wines from Tuscany through the south and on the islands. That comment is just over 20 years old, and although it is hard to dispute Belfrage’s prediction, fiano’s success may just have eclipsed his modest expectations. While the grape is still largely planted in Italy, Australia now has well over 50 makers working with the grape.
A second home
Fiano had in fact found its way to Australia in 1978, which seems somewhat progressive as it was only first granted a DOC in the same year. However, the material that was brought in by the CSIRO never progressed beyond a research phase, with commercial plantings only occurring in the early 21st century. The first vineyards were established by two of the great champions of Italian grapes in Australia, the Coriole and Chalmers families, the former with the CSIRO material and the latter with their own imported vines.
“Fiano is fantastically adaptable to soil types, climate conditions and aspects, so it has found a great home in many different regions of Australia. It can work well in humid and hot climates (think Hunter Valley to the Riverland), it also works at altitude or low elevation – think Alpine Valleys or Adelaide hills to Murray Darling or McLaren Vale.”
Both families debuted a commercial release of the grape in 2005, with the Chalmers’ fruit coming from their Murray-Darling vineyard, while Coriole’s was off McLaren Vale plantings that had been established in 2001, two years after Mark Lloyd fell for the grape after a trip to Italy. And although those regions are very different, they are both warm viticultural zones, which is a signpost for the future application of the grape. The Chalmers family ended up focusing on fiano in their Heathcote site, which they purchased in 2008, but warm zones are by no means the only ones that favour the grape.
“Fiano is fantastically adaptable to soil types, climate conditions and aspects, so it has found a great home in many different regions of Australia,” says Kim Chalmers, Director at Chalmers Wines.
“It is a grape-grower’s dream. It has thick skins, good bunch placement, balanced yields, great natural acidity a great open, upward growing canopy and picture-perfect bunch architecture. Its thick skins mean it has great disease resistance as well as sun protection, so it can work well in humid and hot climates (think Hunter Valley to the Riverland), it also works at altitude or low elevation – think Alpine Valleys or Adelaide hills to Murray Darling or McLaren Vale.”
Hot property
The Murray-Darling is still responsible for a lot of the fiano grown, as is South Australia’s Riverland. Ashley Ratcliff’s Ricca Terra Farms is a key source of quality fiano, amongst other alternative varieties, supplying many cutting-edge makers with fruit. Ricca Terra currently have around 6 hectares of fiano amongst their 80 hectares of vines – with a solid lean towards Italian and Iberian varieties. The grape has become a key pillar in the business, and the access to fruit for thoughtful makers has played a big part in the development of different expressions. Aside from fiano’s suitability for warmer climates, the very reason why it declined in Italy is something that Ratcliff sees as a distinct advantage.
“Fiano has been a hugely important variety here at Coriole, both in itself and how it has influenced our white winemaking in general. Its thick skins and loose bunches provide great protection to the warmth of McLaren Vale, and by varying canopy management we can manipulate bunch exposure to influence phenolic ripeness.”
With small berries and bunches, fiano is suited to high-quality production, a self-limiting attribute that is ideal in an area of abundant sunshine like the Riverland. Unlike many growers in the region, Ratcliff has always pitched his business as a premium operation, and one built on grape varieties that don’t just survive the heat but actually thrive. As it stands, the demand for the Ricca Terra fruit, along with other progressive Riverland growers, very much outstrips supply. That’s a pretty sure sign that fiano is very much on an upward trajectory, no doubt to the surprise of Mr Belfrage!
In McLaren Vale, Mark Lloyd’s son Duncan steers the winemaking at Coriole. Alongside the phenomenal success that sangiovese has been in their portfolio, fiano has become their key white grape, even bottling a reserve alongside their shiraz and cabernet flagships. “Fiano has been a hugely important variety here at Coriole, both in itself and how it has influenced our white winemaking in general,” he says. “Its thick skins and loose bunches provide great protection to the warmth of McLaren Vale, and by varying canopy management we can manipulate bunch exposure to influence phenolic ripeness.”
Lloyd says that the natural depth of flavour and acidity in the grape are key, with his role to build texture, both through viticultural practices and in the winery, with some skin contact and the use of large format oak. “We have found fiano to be a great addition to the other white wine styles we produce from McLaren Vale,” he says. “It carries the most weight and depth of flavour with enough structure to stand up well with food.”
A bright future
Today, there are plantings of fiano in many Australian regions, from the cool of the Alpine Valleys and the Adelaide Hills to the heat of McLaren Vale, Barossa, Murray-Darling, Riverina and Riverland, and it is also establishing a presence in the west, with plantings in Geographe, Margaret River, Great Southern and the decidedly hot Swan Valley.
“Fiano is working well in the Swan District,” says Garth Cliff of Vino Volta.
“It has high acidity, so it gets to good ripeness without adjustments. It has nice tropical and citrussy flavour and lends itself to building texture, which we do with a little skin contact prior to fermentation, then ferment and mature with high solids in barrel.”
Cliff says that the fruit is already in high demand, with alternative varieties somewhat clamoured over in general, but he sees a distinct potential for fiano in the region, both being climate apt and producing wines of character. “The flavour is good, and it makes nicely textured wines. It has the potential for mass appeal, but we’re still really early in our exploration,” he says.
Kim Chalmers believes the potential is vast both in terms of where it can be grown and how it can be made. “It’s totally a winemaker’s grape,” she says.
“We make traditional method sparkling from fiano in Heathcote with plenty of ripe fruit flavour and loads of acid, so no acid adds and no dosage. Miracle! And as for table wine, it will do anything from steely or aromatic crisp dry whites to lees-aged, textural, oak-influenced wines that drink well up to 10 years. Skin contact also works well for fiano, either short or long. Basically it can do anything. I think fiano will become a major white grape for Aussie viticulture. It just works!”
This article is courtesy of Young Gun of Wine 'Deep Dive: Australia's Best Fiano; first published 11 April 2025