The Colline di Levanto hills lie just a few miles up the coast from the rugged cliffs of Cinque Terre, in eastern Liguria. The Levanto after which they are named is the next commune up from Monterosso al Mare, the most northerly of the five villages of Cinque Terre. The two are separated only by the Mesco promontory, a robust headland which juts out into the Ligurian Sea and marks the northern end of the Cinque Terre National Park.
Since August 1995, the Colline di Levanto DOC has been used to label rosso (red) and bianco (white) wines made from the vineyards in the communes of Bonassola, Framura, Deiva Marina and Levanto itself. These four villages line the coast between Monterosso and the northern edge of the La Spezia province, spanning about seven miles (11km) of coves and cliffs. The vines here are planted where topography and geology permit: some high up on the clifftops, some so close to the sea that they are regularly moistened by a salty spray.
The dry Colline di Levanto Bianco is made from the same uvaggio as its more famous neighbor: Vermentino (at least 40% of each blend), Albarola and Bosco. The DOC's rosso wines strike a balance between Italy's favorite red grape and a less well-known, more typically local variety. The first of these is the ubiquitous Sangiovese (the name translates as the blood of Jove), used the length of Italy from the Aosta Valley to southern Sicily, 700 miles to the south. The second is Ciliegiolo: once at risk of fading into obscurity, this character-rich red grape is undergoing a minor revival. No longer is it just a permitted component in various older wines, it is now increasingly used as a blending partner for Sangiovese, in Chianti, Vignanello and here in the Colline di Levanto.
