Hello Community 
We are well into our Wine Champions 2022 offer, and we wanted to get your thoughts on a grape that did well in the blind tastings:
Have you tried this grape before? If so, what do you think of it? And if not, would you be tempted to give it a go, now that it has been featured in our Wine Champions offer?
Iāve had Fiano in the past but it didnāt make an impression enough to rebuy it.
Would I buy the Champion one and try it again? We drink little white, but I might
I used to go to Italy a lot about 20-25 years ago and did try a few fianos. I wasnāt much taken by any of them and mostly preferred drinking Sardinian vermentinos. (Argiolas and Mancini especially). I havenāt bought any fiano since then. I think I would only buy this if I had an opportunity to taste it and liked it. Or possibly if I tried some other fiano and found it better than I remember.
Iāve had the Fiano Sannio, Janare 2016 back in the day and remember re buying it later that year. I did enjoy it hence the re buy. I subsequently tried Fiano Sannio Colle di Tilio, Janare 2017 but must have been less impressed as Iāve neither rebought or added it to my wish list.
To be fair though, there are many TWS whites around this price that are worth trying. Iād need to be drinking a bottle a day to get through them all!
My go to Italian white is any of the Soave wines at this price or a little more expensive
From my perspective - there are a lot of white Italian grapes that make perfectly serviceable wines, but which are not markedly distinct from one another. At the everyday drinking level at least. Fiano can be one of them. I know your buyers have to describe these wines using the usual tasting epithets, but they donāt really help distinguish these wines much till you have tried them.
But then, almost by chance, you can find a food which that wine matches like a glove. A combination where it really sings, rather than a wine that has a huge stand-alone presence, if that makes any sense. For me, that combination was cold salad dishes involving things like lightly-smoked fish, or raw fish in lemon juice/olive oil combinations.
I tried the Australian Fiano from Steve Pannell (currently on offer) which is a bit pricier than the usual Italian examples, but it drew appreciative comments from around the table on this sort of basis.
Personally I rather like Fiano, and am very happy to drink it. Iād regard it as a natural choice in Southern Italy or Sicily, but have so far seen it as good everyday wine rather than great wine.
Makes a lot of sense !
I like it a lot myself; particularly the Guido Marsella.
The WS Mandrarossa one is v.good for the price, I think, though Iāve not yet tried the most recent one. On my to-do list!
And I certainly enjoyed the WS Fi Fi Fiano too.
The A Mano Fiano-Greco blend is very good too, and great value too; something I used to buy a lot of some years ago from elswhere before the WS stocked it.
I currently have my eyes on various other Fianos, but not WS ones Iām afraid. Or not yet at any rate. Iād live to see more decent Fianos on the WS list, I must say. Guido Marsella for a start, and the Luigi Maffini ones arenāt bad, if a bit pricey for what they are [IMO].
Oi Ni Fiano, Tenuta Scuotto, is another Iām keen to get my mits on.
I assume we are talking about this wine that won the Wine Champions 2022?
https://www.thewinesociety.com/product/fiano-mandrarossa-sicilia-2021-organic
I see it also had a great result in Decanter World Wine Awards
Kudos 
Have I tried Fiano? Yes I have. Itās very aromatic and sometimes a bit too overpowering with it overt floral nature. But can be quite complex adding other layers beyond this.
I would recommend (of course I would) the Asda Extra Special version.
Itās Ā£6, promotes to Ā£5.50 and if people look close enough, they may notice a similarity between the 2 wines that is beyond the grape varietyā¦
Slightly funny timing but i tried my first Fiano (from Sicily) last night. I was interested enough to give it another go.
Given a choice I would prefer Fiano di Avellino from Campania to Sicilian examples. I found the ones from Sicily a bit too āfatā and lacking in acidity or minerality. Having said that, I enjoyed the Planeta Fiano/Grecanico blend sold by Tesco (for a tenner).
Iām definitely going to give the Mandrarossa one a go, though - curious about its enthusiastic reception!
This is my favourite Fiano, Iām in agreement with a lot of whatās been said above , Fiano can easily fall in to that ā bland Italian whiteā category, however in the right hands and grown in the right places examples like this are a real pleasure to drink 
I like Fiano (di Avellino, the Puglian Minutolo - as in the A Mano blend - is a very different grape) very much. Maybe S Italyās finest white grape. Really has to be from its volcanic home though - wines like Planetaās Cometa from Sicily can be good, but donāt really tell you about the grape.
Most of the wines mentioned here arenāt really worthy of the name, Iām afraid. Caggianoās is very good, and others like Colli di Lapio or Pietracupa. But there is really only wine to try if you really want to understand Fiano di Avellino - Guido Marsella. There are no imitations.
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Iāll try to pick up a bottle of Fiano di Avellino - Guido Marsella. A @crocos and @suiko recommendation makes it worth checking it out in my book. Will add the wine champion version to an order too.
Iāve got Pleiades on my non TWS list as recommended by @PHarvey. I always struggle to source non TWS single bottle purchases
I got a half -case from The Wine Treasury when they had a bin-ends sale in July, for @ Ā£31 but they are currently OOS. Sean Thackrey Pleiades XXVIII ā The Wine Treasury Ltd.
But email them for when they have a replenished stock ? jdoidge@winetreasury.com
even though itās pricey enough on discount I think itās a fabulous wineā¦
As @suiko says, the non-Avellino Fianos should really be called Minutolo. But there has been DNA testing done on the clones of Fiano in Australia, and they do test out as the true Avellino Fiano. No doubt there was some trepidation following the Albarino/Savagnin saga.
Yes, it is really quite poor, I think, that TWS is perpetuating confusion here by continuing to refer to the Puglian grape as fiano (I donāt doubt that imported versions in Sicily and Oz are the original Campanian variety. Particularly so because the Puglian variety is so very different, being a highly (to my mind excessively) aromatic grape.
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