Geotouristic Enhancement of high-quality wine production areas: examples from Sannio and Irpinia landscapes (Campania Region, Southern Italy)

The aim of this paper is highlighting the strong vine–wine vocation of the Campania inland (southern Italy) through the description of the physical features of two areas, in which two fine wines are produced: the Guardiolo, from the western sector of the Sannio area, and the Greco di Tufo, from northern Irpinia. Recently, initiatives were developed to promote these territories. They allowed attracting tourists and making these areas well-known. In order to indirectly contribute to achieve this goal, some noticeable features of the local landscape have to be considered. In fact, a careful analysis shows that they are often very important for the quality of vines and wines. Therefore, the knowledge of these features, i.e., geology, geomorphology, and pedology, especially when they are representative of the whole landscape and are attributable to the terroir, can also improve the enhancement of the territory by increasing sensitivity to the geological heritage. In this sense, the geological and geomorphological features occurring in these two wine production areas of the Campania region, which emphasize the local history and the original traditions of vine cultivation and wine production, were considered and described in this paper.