The 7 Best Whiskies from Northern Italy, All in One Place

Italy may be famous for its wines, but you’ll find more and more whiskies there too. Some bottles are available in the Netherlands, and others are easy to find when visiting Northern Italy. Come along as we tour the region and reveal the top 7 best whiskies from Northern Italy.

Six Italian distilleries currently bottle their own whisky, five of which are tucked away in the mountains of Northern Italy. The outlier, Poli, sits just south of the Alps in the Vicenza area. Other distilleries exist as well, but they (still) don’t have whisky on the market.

This distillery lies close to Milan. With a name that means “railway,” it’s nearly ready to release its first whisky. In the meantime, you can taste youthful editions of its single malt: ‘On The Way’. In addition, EXMU also makes whisky, though there’s not much detail online.

We’ve already covered PUNI and Poli in The top 10 best European whiskies to drink in warm weather. Most Italian whisky comes from South Tyrol, part of the autonomous region Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol. Here, two out of three people speak German as their first language rather than Italian, so Italian whisky is very much a product of this dual identity.

This is the only distillery on the list outside South Tyrol. Poli produces a wide range of grappa, but only one whisky: Segretario di Stato. It’s a five-year-old single malt finished in Amarone casks. Poli distills in an artisanal way using “discontinuous bain-marie” stills. Segretario di Stato comes in a resealable bottle with a slim neck—strikingly different from standard whisky bottles.

Italy’s first single malt distillery—and still the best known, PUNI is set in the Val Venosta valley near the Austrian and Swiss borders. PUNI’s bottles are carefully designed, with black tops and a silhouette inspired by pot stills. Each PUNI whisky is a single malt matured in a mix of bourbon and Italian wine casks—think Marsala from Sicily and northern reds like Amarone.

When PUNI launched Italy’s first single malt, the team at Psenner said, “we probably have the first Italian single malt whisky.” Why “probably”? Because their eRètico is older—but Psenner released it after PUNI.

Debates aside, Psenner makes a distinctive style of whisky. Distilled in alembic stills, their single malt matures in grappa, Amarone, sherry, and Gewürztraminer casks. South Tyrol’s mix of Mediterranean and Alpine climates shapes eRètico’s maturation. The name carries meaning too: “Eretico” means “heretic,” and nods to Rhaetia, a Roman province that covered much of what is now South Tyrol.

Just 400 meters from Psenner, Roner produces a very different whisky: TER Lignum. Roner partners with the FORST brewery, which makes their whisky wash. TER Lignum is the only whisky to come out of Roner.

Bottled at 40% ABV, it’s matured in three types of wood: cherry, oak, and larch. Tasting notes include plum, coconut, dark chocolate, and mint.

Villa de Varda’s InQuota may be Italy’s newest single malt. This grappa distillery uses local barley grown at high altitudes. Villa de Varda is set on pushing boundaries: you can taste a “mountain single malt” finished in Amarone casks, with dry notes of bilberry and cherry.

Another release brings sweet aromas from Passito di Pantelleria casks, sourced from a small island between Tunisia and Sicily. Local Dolomite spruce casks lend resinous notes to a third whisky. Villa de Varda also bottles a rye whisky. All of the above whiskies are non-age-stated.

St Urban is a small distillery producing a single whisky: “South Tyrolean Single Malt.” There aren’t many details on this non-age-stated whisky, but we do know something about its maturation: St Urban uses Gewürztraminer Passito casks, from a local sweet white wine made in Trentino.