Lugana is a white wine from the southern shores of Lake Garda. Cradled in a beautiful spot in the hills around the town of Sirmione, between the towns of Peschiera del Garda and Desenzano, Lugana DOC is one of the few Italian wine denominations that crosses two regions: Lombardy and Veneto. The DOC was set up in 1967 and covers 2,600 hectares. It permits five different designations – annata (the regular wine of the vintage), Superiore, Riserva, late harvest and spumante (sparkling) – although most wines produced are dry whites.
Wines must be made from 90% Trebbiano di Soave or Trebbiano di Lugana (known locally as Turbiana). Recent DNA analysis has found that Turbiana is almost identical to Verdicchio, the white variety found in the Marche, but there are enough small differences to suggest it is a biotype of this variety rather than a clone.
Dry Lugana wines can be
