Casa Defra Sauvignon IGT

Veneto - the most famous of the 3 major producing regions in northeastern Italy

Veneto is a substantial and increasingly important wine region in the northeastern corner of Italy. Administratively it forms part of the Triveneto zone, along with its smaller neighbors Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In terms of geography, culture, and wine styles, it represents a transition between the alpine, Germano-Slavic end of Italy and the warmer, drier, more Roman lands to the south.

Veneto is slightly smaller than Italy's other main wine-producing regions – Piedmont, Tuscany, Lombardy, Puglia, and Sicily – yet it generates more wine than any of them. Although the southern regions Sicily and Puglia were for a long time Italy's main wine producers, this balance began to shift north towards Veneto in the latter half of the 20th Century. In the 1990s, southern Italian wine languished in an increasingly competitive and demanding world, while Veneto upped its game, gaining recognition with such wines as Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave, and Prosecco.

With fruity red Valpolicella complementing its intense Amarone and sweet Recioto counterparts, Veneto is armed with a formidable portfolio of red wines to go with its refreshing whites, such as Soave and sparkling Prosecco. Although much of the new vineyard area that supported Veneto's increased wine output was of questionable viticultural quality, today more than 25 percent of the region's wine is made and sold under DOC/DOCG titles.