Pecorino: The Abruzzo White That Almost Went Extinct

Pecorino is pronounced peh-koh-REE-noh.

No, not the cheese. The grape came first, or at least the name belongs to both, and the wine has been overshadowed by a wedge of aged sheep's milk for far too long. What's in the glass is a dry, mineral, central-Italian white with more spine than almost anything at its price.

If you drink Pinot Grigio because it's cold and easy, Pecorino does that job and then keeps going.

What it tastes like

Start with green apple and pear, add a note of white flowers, and finish on something saline and stony, like the smell of wet rock. There's often a faint anise or aniseed lift on the back end. It's dry, and the acidity is bright, but this is not a thin wine. Pecorino ripens to high sugar, so alcohol frequently lands near 13 to 14 percent, which gives the wine a broader, rounder mouthfeel than the average crisp white.

That combination is the whole point: the freshness of a lean white with the body of something more serious. It has grip. The finish lingers instead of vanishing the second you swallow.

A grape that shepherds nearly finished off

The name most likely traces back to the transumanza, the old seasonal migration of sheep across the Apennines. The theory goes that flocks moving through the hills of Abruzzo and Marche grazed on this early-ripening grape, and the name for sheep, pecora, stuck to it.

For most of the 20th century that history nearly ended. Pecorino is a low-yielder and a fussy grower, and in an era that rewarded volume, farmers pulled it out in favor of easier, more productive vines. By the 1970s it had all but vanished from commercial vineyards.

The revival came in the 1980s, when growers in the Marche tracked down surviving old-vine material and started replanting it in earnest. The first modern varietal bottlings followed, and Abruzzo picked it up and ran. Today Abruzzo is the grape's largest home, with plantings around the Marche border and the Offida DOCG in Marche producing some of the most structured examples. This is a wine that exists today because a handful of people decided a nearly forgotten grape was worth the trouble.

Bottles to look for

You don't need to memorize labels — you need to know what to reach for. Look for a Pecorino from Abruzzo (often labeled Terre di Chieti or Colline Pescaresi IGT) or from the Offida DOCG in Marche. Producers with a track record for the grape include Cocci Grifoni, which was central to the revival, along with Illuminati, La Valentina, and Tiberio. Cirelli and I Lauri make well-regarded lower-intervention versions if that's your lane.

Here's the honest caveat. Because Pecorino ripens to such high sugar, some producers chase power and hang it in oak it doesn't need. The clumsy bottles trade the grape's natural tension for weight and warmth, and you lose the reason you came. Steer toward the leaner, unoaked, stainless-steel style, especially for your first bottle. There's no single critic score I'd point you to as gospel here; the category is young and uneven, and the best value sits with the fresher, cheaper end.

Where to buy

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Pecorino has landed well in the US, and you'll find Abruzzo and Marche bottles at most shops with a decent Italian section, usually in the $15 to $25 range. It's one of the easier underdog whites to actually get your hands on.

browse Pecorino on Wine.com →

— Chris Berry

If you're switching from a famous grape

If Pinot Grigio is your default pour — cold, crisp, undemanding — Pecorino is the upgrade that costs about the same. You keep the refreshment and the easy table manners, but you gain minerality, structure, and a finish that doesn't quit. It's the difference between a wine that gets out of the way and one that's actually worth tasting.

See Wines Like Pinot Grigio for the full set of swaps, or jump straight to Order This Instead.

Part of Lesser-Known Wines: 17 Obscure Grapes Worth Switching To — the full underdog-swap guide.