Basilicata, mountainous, virtually land-locked area of southern Italy, is the country’s third least populated region, with approximately 600,000 inhabitants. Its name has become synonymous with the extreme poverty in, and abandonment of, much of Italy’s deep south. Little commercial or industrial activity exists, and the countryside has been drained by emigration since the end of the Second World War, while its unspoilt natural beauty still awaits any significant tourism boost to the regional economy. Little exists in the way of viticulture either; the region’s total vineyard surface is 5,567 ha/13,756 acres, of which a third is classified as doc. The Basilicata has only four DOC wines and one docg. aglianico del vulture is qualitatively the most important with its vineyards situated on the slopes of an extinct volcano 56 km/35 miles to the north of Potenza. Confusingly, only the Superiore version of Aglianico del Vulture has been elevated to DOCG status.
