The Italian Region with the capital Potenza is "at the boot sole". The viticulture can be up to the Phoenicians traced. The Romans called the land Lucania and this name is still common today in addition to Basilicata. The current name is derived from the Byzantine "basilikos", which in the 9th and 10th centuries was a name for the ruling province princes. The mountainous highlands are mainly composed of sedimentary rocks with clay, limestone and sand, and numerous streams of water flow through them. The Basilicata is from the three regions Apulia. Calabria and Campania locked in. There are two short coastal sections on the Tyrrhenian and Ionian seas.
The vineyards cover 4,000 hectares of vineyards, which are fragmented into many thousands, often less than a hectare large layers. The largest part lies in the east near Matera in river valleys and in the coastal plain of the Ionian Sea around Metaponto. In the 6th century BC BC, the Greeks allegedly planted the ancestors of today's dominant red wines Aglianico (or Aglianico del Vulture), other important ones Aleatico. Bombino Nero. Cabernet Sauvignon. Ciliegiolo. Malvasia Nera di Basilicata. Merlot. Montepulciano, Primitivo ( Tribidrag ) and Sangiovese, Important white wines are Asprinio ( Greco ) Bombino Bianco. Fiano. Greco Bianco. Malvasia Bianca di Basilicata, Moscato Bianco ( Muscat Blanc ) and Trebbiano (?). There is only one IGT area called Basilicata. The five DOC / DOCG zones account for around 30% of production.