Lombardy, is one of Italy's largest and most populous regions in the central north of the country. It is home to handful of popular and well-known wine styles including the bright, cherry-scented Valtellina and the high-quality sparkling wine of Franciacorta and Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico.
Lombardy is Italy’s industrial powerhouse, and has the nation's second-largest city (Milan) as its regional capital. Despite this, the region has large expanses of unspoilt countryside of which is home to many small-scale wineries that make a significant proportion of the region's annual 1.2 million hL wine output.
A large and geographically complex region, Lombardy is well placed to offer a wide range of wine styles, and is home to five DOCG , 21 DOC and 15 IGP titles. The Oltrepo Pavese zone stands out among these as one of the larger, better-known regions, not only for its sparkling Oltrepo Pavese Metodo Classico DOCG, but more recently for its Pinot Grigio. Franciacorta, the second of Lombardy's two sparkling DOCG wines, is from the rapidly developing and well-regarded vineyards between Brescia and Lake Iseo.
