Terre degli Osci (or sometimes simply 'Osco') is a key IGT title used in Molise, southern-central Italy. It covers the Campobasso province, which is named after the provincial and regional capital Campobasso, and is the larger of Molise's two provinces.
The name Terre degli Osci means 'the land of the Oscans' – an ancient tribe which once inhabited this area of Italy. Homer’s epic The Odyssey tells how the enchantress Circe bore Ulysses (Odysseus) two sons, who went on to found the two great societies of central Italy: the Etruscans (see Tuscany) and the Oscans. As they settled the lands of modern-day Molise, the landscape divided them into two distinct tribes: the Sabelli, who were shepherds in the hills and mountains of western Molise, and the Osci, who farmed the plains of the east.
Campobasso is (broadly speaking) lower-lying than Molise's other province, Isernia (see Pentro di Isernia), particularly in the east, towards the Adriatic coastline. In light of this, it's particularly fitting that Terre degli Osci IGT should cover Campobasso, as it would have been here that the Osci lived, and tended their crops. There is little evidence that these crops included wine, but
Molise is Italy's second-smallest region (after Valle d'Aosta) in both geographical and population terms, and ranks among Italy's least productive wine regions. Continuous emigration during the 20th Century has left it impoverished, and without a strong, motivated workforce (a story familiar to almost every region of southern Italy). As a result, the region's wines have not benefitted from the creativity and financial freedom afforded to winemakers in the richer, more vibrant regions of the north.
Some Molise winemakers have attempted to diversify and modernize their offering in recent decades, shunning the region's traditional grapes (e.g. Tintilia) in favor of internationally popular grape varieties such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Grigio. The creation of the catch-all, region-wide 'Molise' DOC in 1998 made it possible to create DOC-level wines with these varieties, the lack of prestige associated with the name Molise significantly reduced the marketing power of the new appellation. When the IGT category was created in the mid-1990s, with the purpose of freeing wine producers from the constraints of tradition, Molise was given just two titles; one for Campobasso (Terre degli Osci IGT), and one for Isernia (Rotae IGT).
Thus far, only a handful of wineries have taken up the Terre degli Osci title to any great extent. The most notable are Molise's two best-known producers – Di Majo Norante and Cantine Cipressi. Each of these also makes various wines under the Molise DOC, which overlaps with Terre degli Osci IGT to a significant extent (both geographically and in terms of wine styles), but offers the added marketability of being a DOC rather than an IGT.
