Pinot Bianco produces elegant, perfumed white wines with high acidity. Typical flavours include white flowers, grapefruit, tropical fruits (guava, lychee, pineapple), pear and melon. Even in perfectly dry wines, it offers a perceived sweetness due to the honey undertone. It has an affinity to oak, and is age-worthy.
This is the grape of Italy’s north-east. In Lombardia, Pinot Bianco works as a minor blending partner to add acidity and fruitiness to iconic sparkling wines. In Franciacorta (Chardonnay-based), Pinot Bianco can make up to 50% of the blend, although in practice it's usually much less. Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico (Pinot Nero-based) wine can also include up to 30% Pinot Bianco.
But where Pinot Bianco really shines is in Alto Adige and Friuli Venezia Giulia. It was brought here during the Austrian reign in the early 1800s.
In Alto Adige DOC, Pinot Bianco is known as Weißburgunder (White Burgundy). This is the third most-planted white grape (after Pinot Grigio and Gewürztraminer), and produces complex, age-worthy wines. Grapes are typically planted on steep Alpine slopes as high at 500-700 metres.
In Friuli, the eastern hills (Colli DOCG and Friuli Colli Orientali DOC ) produce the finest Pinot Bianco wines. This grape is the key part of the famous white blend of Rosazzo DOCG.
Registration Code: 193
Official name: Pinot Bianco B.
Offical permitted synonyms: Weißburgunder (only in Trentino Alto Adige), Pinot Blanc (only for export), Pinot (only for sparkling wines).
The grape has been registered in the official MiPAAF Registro Varietà since 1970.[1]
Pinot Bianco is used in four DOCG wines: Franciacorta DOCG (Lombardia), Oltrepò Pavese Metodo Classico DOCG (Lombardia), Colli di Conegliano DOCG (Veneto), Rosazzo DOCG (Fliuli Venezia Giulia).
Pinot Bianco can be found in single-varietal wines or bianco blends in 55 DOCs, primarily in the north of Italy. The main one is Alto Adige DOC (Alto Adige), where it’s used for single-varietal wines labelled as Weißburgunder. Trento DOC (Trentino) is a sparkling wine denomination where Pinot Bianco can be used to add acidity and fruitiness, similarly to Franciacorta.
Pinot Bianco is permitted in 98 IGTs across Italy, from Lombardia in the north to Sicily in the south. However, this grape is mostly grown in the north.
In 2010, Italy had more than 3,000[1] hectares planted with Pinot Bianco, of which 17% belongs to just one denomination: Alto Adige DOC [2]. Overall, Pinot Bianco vineyards have been in a slow decline since the 1990s, when its plantings peaked at 6,852 hectares (MiPAAF).
However, between 1993 and 2019 Alto Adige increased its Pinot Bianco vineyards by 8%. It follows the stable interest in this grape from the German-speaking export markets: Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
[1] MiPAAF
[2] Consorzio Südtirol Wein / Vini Alto Adige
