When the ancient Greeks descended from their tall trireme decks and onto the shores of Southern Italy, they saw the unrivaled viticulture of Calabria and dubbed its sun-soaked shores the perennial "land of wine." Over the millennia, Dionysus's slice of the Coast of the Gods has been superseded in the world of wine by Northwest Italy's famous, elegant wine regions, but this unsung region is still home to an array of delectable wines and enticing old world vineyards.

Yet, despite not tempting the same heaving tourist crowds as some of its northerly neighbors, Calabria is dotted with viticultural draws. It has dedicated "wine cities," where some of Italy's oldest vines have been carefully cultivated for over a century. These are connected by "wine roads," which wind through the vine-laced hills that undulate from the Apennines' peaks to Calabria's rugged shore.