Region & History

When Greek settlers landed on Calabria's Ionian coast in the eighth century BC, they named the land Oinotria — after the Greek word oinos, wine. Vines are said to have grown here even before their arrival. They founded Sybaris, Croton and Locri, splendid cities that, together with the rest of southern Italy, soon became known as Magna Graecia, Greater Greece. Wine was part of the story from the very beginning.

On the site of present-day Cirò Marina once stood Krimisa, and the wine from there was said to be no ordinary drink but a prize of honor for victors of the ancient Olympic Games. Or so the story goes. Even Milo of Croton, multiple Olympic wrestling champion, is said to have been fond of this wine. No one knows for certain whether it's true. What is certain is that this wine's reputation stretches back at least two and a half thousand years.

This isn't just tourism-board invention. At the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City, Cirò was served as the official wine of the Games to all participating athletes, and in 2004 the victors in Athens once again received a bottle — this time a Cirò DOC Superiore called Krimisa. Twice a modern Olympiad reached back for that promise. A promise first made in antiquity.

Officially, this story was recognized only late. Cirò didn't receive DOC status until April 1969 — the first in all of Calabria — even though Italy's system of such designations had existed since 1963. Other regions already had several by then. The wine that had once honored Olympic champions needed over two thousand years itself to gain state recognition.

In the summer of 2025 came the next step. In July, the EU Commission confirmed the new tier Cirò Classico DOCG, published shortly afterward in the Official Journal of the European Union, giving Calabria its first-ever denominazione at Italy's highest category. It must contain at least ninety percent Gaglioppo, plus a minimum of thirty-six months of aging, including six months in wood. For a region that suffered for decades under a reputation for cheap bulk wine, this was a belated but unmistakable vindication.