Dante put it in Hell’s antechamber, a pope reputedly died chasing it, and modern Italy chose it to go first. In a land of legendary reds, the oldest star is a white.
Rising from the Tuscan hills, the towers of San Gimignano are among the most photographed silhouettes in Italy. But the town’s oldest fame is not its skyline — it is a golden white wine, Vernaccia di San Gimignano, with a documented history stretching back nearly eight hundred years and a claim no other Italian wine can make.
The white in a land of reds
In Tuscany — the homeland of Sangiovese, of Chianti and Brunello — nearly everything great is red. Vernaccia is the exception: a crisp, mineral white made from the indigenous Vernaccia grape grown almost exclusively around this one hill town. It first appears in the written record in 1276, in the town’s own statutes, which taxed the wine as it left the gates — proof it was already a valuable export.[1]
Dante’s wine
Vernaccia was famous enough to earn a place in the greatest poem of the Middle Ages. In Dante’s Divine Comedy (Purgatorio, Canto XXIV), the glutton Pope Martin IV does penance for having loved the eels of Lake Bolsena drowned in Vernaccia wine — a joke his medieval readers would have caught instantly, because Vernaccia was the luxury white of popes and merchants.[1] Through the Renaissance it graced the tables of the Medici and was celebrated by poets as one of the finest white wines in Italy.[1]
A wine mentioned by Dante, taxed in 1276, and chosen to lead modern Italy’s wine law.
The wine that went first
When Italy built its modern quality-control system in the 1960s, Vernaccia di San Gimignano was chosen to lead: in 1966 it became the first Italian wine to be awarded DOC status.[2] In 1993 it was promoted again, to Italy’s top tier, DOCG — a rare honor for a white in a red-dominated country.[2]
| Type | Dry white wine — a rarity in red-dominated Tuscany[1] |
|---|---|
| The grape | Vernaccia, indigenous to the San Gimignano hills[2] |
| First recorded | 1276, in the town’s tax statutes[1] |
| Literary fame | Named by Dante in the Divine Comedy[1] |
| Firsts | Italy’s first DOC (1966); DOCG since 1993[2] |
San Gimignano today
The towers still stand, a UNESCO World Heritage site, and below them the Vernaccia vines still produce the wine that made the town rich centuries before tourism did. It is the perfect counterpoint to the region’s great reds — the noble Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and the ageless Brunello — and proof that Tuscany’s wine story has a white chapter as old as any.
Related reading: the history of Tuscan wine · Vino Nobile di Montepulciano · Brunello di Montalcino · the Wine History Timeline
Frequently asked questions
What kind of wine is Vernaccia di San Gimignano?
A dry white wine made from the indigenous Vernaccia grape grown around the Tuscan hill town of San Gimignano — a rarity in a region famous for red Sangiovese.
Why is Vernaccia historically important?
It is recorded as far back as 1276, was named by Dante in the Divine Comedy, and in 1966 became the first Italian wine ever awarded DOC status, then DOCG in 1993.
Sources
- “Vernaccia di San Gimignano — history” (first documented in the town statutes of 1276; mentioned by Dante in Purgatorio Canto XXIV via Pope Martin IV; prized by the Medici and Renaissance popes), Consorzio della Vernaccia di San Gimignano / Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vernaccia_di_San_Gimignano
- “Vernaccia di San Gimignano DOCG” (Italy’s first DOC in 1966; promoted to DOCG in 1993; made from the Vernaccia grape), Italian Wine Central. italianwinecentral.com
Want to read more?
Books we drew on and recommend for going deeper on wine history.
The World Atlas of WineHugh Johnson & Jancis Robinson
9000 Years of Wine: A World HistoryRod Phillips
Cork DorkBianca BoskerAs an Amazon Associate, Wine History Tours earns from qualifying purchases. This supports our research at no extra cost to you.
