Falanghina

Falanghina is the leading white of Campania, in the hills around Naples and Benevento, and it is one of the varieties that carried the region's revival from the 1990s. The name is usually traced to falanga, a stake, referring to the practice of training the vine on a pole rather than up a tree, which was the older southern Italian method.

Two distinct varieties share the name. Falanghina Beneventana grows inland in the Sannio hills around Benevento, and Falanghina Flegrea grows on the volcanic ground of the Campi Flegrei on the coast west of Naples. DNA testing separated them, and the wines differ: the inland version is fuller and more citric, and the coastal volcanic version is leaner, smokier and more mineral.

Both give a dry white of moderate to full body with green apple, citrus, white flowers and a slightly bitter, saline finish. Acidity is medium rather than high, so the wine is rounder than a northern Italian white. It is best young, though the coastal bottlings from old ungrafted vines on volcanic sand can hold five years or more.