Although most of my favorite wines from Italy are red, there are some great whites as well. Here are a few of my favorites:<BR><BR>The whtes of Trentino- this small area of northern Italy only makes about 1% of all white wine in Italy but it is home to a huge number of great wines. Three of my favorites are Instituto San Michele, Ca'Terlano and Hoffstater. All three wineries make wonderful gewurztraminers, not unlike an Alsatian but with more delicacy. Ca'Terlano has a gewurztraminner called Lunare and a sauvognon blanc called Quarz that are among my favorite white wines of all time.<BR><BR>Tocai Friulano (soon to be renamed Furlan)- Tocai is the original grape of Friuli. It is related to the Tocay-Pinot Gris of Alsace and not the Tocay of hungary. Its is a dry white with a spicy oily character. It is superb with seafood, tomatoe based dishes and rich foods like prosciutto and salumi. No wonder since San Daniele, hoe to great prosciutto, is in Friuli and Friuli has quite a bot of coastline on the Adriatic. Favorite producere include Pra di Pradis, Ronco del Gnemiz, Filliputti, Doro Princic.<BR><BR>Bianco Ischia- a white made on the Island of Ischia in the bay of Naples. Wonderful mineraly character imparted by the Volcanic soils. I have not had many here in the US but have drunk a number when in Sorrento. I don't have any distinct recollection of the name of any of the many many Ischia whites we drank in our 3 days in Sorrento. Funny how that happened!

Nobody else care about this?<BR><BR>There are a lot of whites produced in the area around San Gimignano. Any of them really good? or all pedestrian?<BR>

Hi fellow wine drinkers,<BR><BR>When in San Gimignano, we strolled along gathering picnic supplies which included a wonderful white from the area. Sorry I can't remember what the name was. Sometimes I remember the wines I try & sometimes not!<BR><BR>I love Santa Margherita Pino Grigio & buy it often at home. Also liked Orvieto Classico but not as much as the others.<BR><BR>Dean - can the Quarz sauvingnon blanc be found in the US? It sounds wonderful & I'd like to try it!

I am normally a red wine drinking (drinking a fabulous red right now). But, last month I enjoyed the dry whites in the Cinque Terre. Lucious! Terrific with all the fresh seafood, pesto, and olives. I wanna go back!

The Quarz and Lunare are both extremely limited and actually fairly pricy. Only a few 6 packs are available of each. I would look up the phone number for Diamond Wine Merchants who are the importers for the wines and let then steer you to a retailer who might have the wine. Diamond in in the 510 area code in Emmeryville California (I believe) I have never seen it at retail in my wanderings around DC and NYC but that is a fairly small sample size. I have bought the wines in Venezia at Fiaschetteria Toscana and the little wine shop/pannini bar next door to Achiugette. If in venice, do pick up a few bottles and lug them home. Be sure to buy the dal Forno romano Valpolicella there as well.<BR><BR>

Dayle...<BR>do yourself a favor and try a pinot grigio from a smaller producer. Santa margherita is a huge cooperative with a very good marketing department, but its wine lacks soul. Here are a number of truly excellent producers of Pinot Grigio (in no particular order):<BR><BR>***Maso Furli<BR>**Hoffstater<BR>*Haas<BR>***Ronco del Gnemiz<BR>**Jermann<BR>**Doro Princic<BR>***Pra di Pradis<BR>*Castelcosa (fairly winely available and pretty reasonably priced $11.00 or so)<BR>***Ca Terlano<BR>*Borgo Tiglio<BR>***Filliputti<BR>*Lageder<BR>*Tiefenbrun er<BR>**Pojer e Sandri<BR><BR>One point on Pinot grigio... in northern italy white wines especially are often named after their grape, such as Pinot Grigio. So someone who makes a pinot grigio usually will also make a Tocai Friulano, Sauvignon Blanc (labeled as sauvignon) or Pinot Bianco. In Friuli they will also have a Tocai Friulano (soon to be renamed Furlan) which is a spicy dry white similar to but superior to (IMO) pinot grigio. In the sud tyrol (Trentino and Alto Adige) you might find a reisling or a traminer or gewurztraminer. I am wild about the latter two grapes.

Tom and Dayle re:Vernaccia di San Gim<BR><BR>This is a difficult DOC. Most Vernaccia are insipid and at best refreshng. There are a few incredible and a few good producers. Unfortunately I am too senile and too far removed from my wine buying days to recall more than a handful.<BR><BR>Terre di Tufo by Terruzzi e Perthod-- this is the wine of the DOC. It is a super vernaccia. Very ripe with an onion skin color and spicy and oily flavors. The plain vernaccia from Teruzzi e Perthod is also quite nice but nothing in comparison<BR><BR>Pietrafitta and Pietra sirena are both very nice. <BR><BR>All in all I'd much rather dring a wine from Trentino, Alto Adige or Friuli. When in Toscana I basically only drink red.

How about Orvieto Classico?

Again, my favorite umbian wines are mostly red but Orvieto can be quite nice. I like Bigi, Barbi and Decugnano di Barbi. Anything where Ricardo Coltarella is the winemaker although that won't necessarily be obvious. I am looking forward, some day, to going to Orvieto and tasting thru a range of small producers at one of the enotecche in town.<BR><BR>Back to the Vernaccia's, I forgot Ricardo Falcini. one of my favorites.