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Italy
"No poem was ever written by a drinker of water," the great Roman poet, Horace wrote. People have enjoyed drinking wine for thousands of years ever since its ancient origins in Mesopotamia, near present-day Iran.
The Greeks, who settled in southern Italy and Sicily, exported the art of wine-growing to Italy. They were so impressed with the mild Italian climate which was perfect for producing wines that they called Italy, Oenotria, or the land of trained vines.
The Etruscans, who settled in central Italy, also produced wines. The Romans improved the techniques that the Greeks and Etruscans used.
Demand for wine increased greatly with the population explosion in Rome from 300B.C. to the beginning of the Christian era. It increased to over one million people and, as even the slaves drank wine, much more wine had to be produced.
The Romans loved their wine, drinking it with every meal. However, as the alcohol content was stronger than ours, they mixed it with large quantities of water. They preferred sweet wine and strangely enough their most prized wine was white. This came from the area that they thought was the best wine-growing region, the Falernian region near Naples.
During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Italian wine was often criticized for its poor quality and the government decided that steps had to be taken. DOCG or new wine regulations were introduced to improved the quality of the wine.
Today Italian wines are considered by critics to be amongst the best in the world. As there are twenty different regions to choose from, each with different varieties, it is never difficult to find a fine Italian wine!
Emilia Romagna...
The strongly individual characteristics of Emilia-Romagna wines make them northern Italy's most eccentric. They are different, on the whole, from the wines of their neighbours.
The best Emilian wine is perhaps Lambrusco, a sparkling, joyous red made from grapes grown on high trellised vines in four DOC zones in the Modena, and Reggio Emilia provinces. Lambrusco is made for consumption within the year and very few consumers abroad have tasted the wine in its authentic dry style. Most exported Lambrusco is sweet and 'amabile'. Though both types count in historical traditions, the dry variety is considered the best match for the area's rich cuisine.
In the foothills of the Apennines to the south of the region, fun-loving white wines are made from Malvasia, Trebbiano and Ortrugo as well as zesty reds which are made from Barbera and Bonarda grapes. Though in the areas of the Colli Piacentini, the Colli Bolognesi and the Colli di Parma, more serious wines are made from Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot, Barbera, Cabernet and Merlot, the majority of Emilian wines are frothy and somewhat lightweight.
In Romagna, wines are made primarily from the native Sangiovese, Trebbiano and Albana grapes. Albana di Romagna, which became Italy's first DOCG white wine in 1987, is usually dry and still with a distinctive almond undertone and finish. The traditional semisweet and bubbly version of Albana Spumante is a rich and sweet passito made from partly-dried grapes. Another Romagna white, the Trebbiano di Romagna, is often light and fresh and, whether still or bubbly, has a fragility that renders it best in its youth.
The king of Romagna wines, though, is Sangiovese, usually a robust red with pronounced fruity flavours, reminiscent of the great variety of produce and fruits gracing the area. More and more often, though, local producers of Sangiovese are making superior reserve wines of greater depth of bouquet and flavour, capable of aging gracefully.
Local vintners and winemakers are actively building interest in rare local wines such as the DOC white Pagadebit and the red Cagnina and Bosco Eliceo. Other varieties produced here are Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Pinot and Cabernet.
Lombardia...
Although most agricultural areas in Lombardy focus on food production rather than grape growing, and its grapes and wines have a difficult time when compared to the surrounding regions of Piedmont, Veneto, and Trentino, Lombardy is a respectable wine producing area.
That said, one could find very good local wine production, centred specifically on six main noble grape variety zones.
The Oltrepò Pavese, which means beyond the Po River and translates into an area roughly corresponding to the Pavia province, has a long tradition of excellent wine. Only recently has its wines acquired a well-deserved recognition that goes beyond the national borders. The tradition of selling these modestly priced wines locally in the countryside’s osterie, or taverns, lined along the banks of the Ticino and Po rivers, has led to the lingering false impression that the local production was of lesser quality than wines produced in the neighbouring regions.
The Valtellina DOC zone, centred around the province of Sondrio, produces some of the most appreciated regional wines based largely on the local version of Nebbiolo, the Piedmont noble grape known here as Chiavannesca. The Valtellina SuperioreDOCs, which are usually differentiated by the area where the grape was grown, are especially good.
The province of Brescia, which includes the Franciacorta zone with its rich reds, excellent whites, and outstanding sparkling wines, is the third major wine producing area. There are about 70 wineries within the Franciacorta zone, and some of them, such as the Berlucchi, producers of arguably the best Italian sparkling wines, and the Ca del Bosco, are recognized national leaders in quality and prestige. In addition, there are two more DOC zones, the Cellatica and Botticino, that are closer to the city of Brescia, and other notable wines, such as the Trebbiano di Lugana, are produced on the Brescian shores of the Garda Lake.
The three other main producing areas, though less noteworthy, create some respectable wines such as the Valcalepio DOC in the province of Bergamo, the Lambrusco Mantovano, produced around Mantova near the border with Emilia-Romagna and the tiny zone of San Colombano al Lambro, in the province of Milan.
Marche...
Verdicchio is the plenipotentiary of the wines of this pleasant Adriatic region, whose long-time devotion to whites no longer obscures the increasing merits of its reds. The Castelli di Jesi DOC zone, covering a vast tract of hills west of the port of Ancona, is the home of the Verdicchio that made an early impression abroad in its green amphora bottles. But recently producers have created a new image of Verdicchio as a white wine of special character that comes across even more convincingly in standard bottles.
Class has risen so steadily that even wine still sold in the hourglass-shaped amphora seems a cut above the general level of popular whites. Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico, has been described as Italy's premier wine to serve with fish. Some producers make wines that develop such impressive depth and complexity with age that Verdicchio is increasingly ranked among the noblest native white varieties of Italy.
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Puglia...
Apulia produces more wine than any other Italian region usually making up around 17% of the national total. It also competes with Sicily for first place as grape producer. For a long time much of the wine made here was shipped north to Turin were it was used to make Vermouth, or to France where it was used to give structure to French wines when the local harvest was either poor or insufficient.
In recent years, Pugliese vintners have changed their views and tastes and are pursuing wines that effectively balance sweetness, acid, alcohol content and density.
Apulia counts 25 DOC wines including the Primitivo di Manduria, a red named after the grape with the same name that a California researcher, Carole Meredith, proved to have the same DNA as the American Zinfandel, the appreciated and prize-winning California Grape. The Accademia dei Racemi, an association that brings together vintners, agronomists and oenologists is dedicated to promoting and enhancing the quality of wine production in the region. Under the leadership of Mr. Gregory Polucci, it produces an excellent Primitivo and is experimenting with Zinfandel grapes imported from the USA.
A special mention should be made of Salice Salentino, a powerful red produced in the Lecce province. It is made primarily with Negro Amaro and has gained an enthusiastic following abroad because of the excellent ratio quality-price.
Puglia has long seen a prevalence of co-operative wine production. As both Italian and European community subsidies for co-op wineries have almost completely dried up, these large establishments and their grape-grower members are facing the choice of either changing their politics or risking annihilation. This is probably best for wine connoisseurs, as many co-ops have already scaled back production in order to focus on quality, branded, bottled wines.
Piedmont...
An overwhelming majority of Piedmont's wines derive from native vines. Besides the noble Nebbiolo, source of Barolo, Barbaresco, Gattinara and Ghemme, which are all DOCG, Barbera ranks as the most popular vine for reds, followed by Dolcetto, which is enjoyed for its mellow, round flavours. Brachetto makes sweet, fragrant bubbly red that is DOCG as Brachetto d'Acqui. Freisa and Grignolino lead a host of local varieties in rounding out the honour roll of reds.
Still, among classified wines, whites represent about a third of the volume. First comes Asti, whose DOCG applies to both sparkling Spumante and the softly bubbly Moscato d'Asti. With an average annual output of nearly 60 million litres, the Asti appellation ranks second in volume to Chianti among Italy's classified wines. An established star is Gavi, a dry white made from the native Cortese grape and a recent addition to the DOCG list.
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Sicily...
Contrasts are not the least of those things in which Sicily abounds. So perhaps it is not surprising that this ancient island boasts one of Italy's most progressive wine industries or that a region noted chiefly in the past for strong and often sweet amber Marsala and Moscato has switched the emphasis toward lighter, fruitier wines mainly white but also red. Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean, has more vineyards than any other Italian region. Yet, with the emphasis shifting from quantity to quality, wine production has diminished recently to slightly less than that of Veneto.
Tuscany...
Florence's region continues to advance its position as the nation's most dynamic producer of premium wines, following decades of turning out popular Chianti in straw-covered flasks. Tuscany's modern renaissance in wine began in Chianti, in the central hills around Siena and Florence, but it rapidly spread to take in the strip along the Mediterranean coast that was not previously noted for vineyards.
Much of the progress has come with classical reds based on the native Sangiovese vine, Chianti, Brunello di Montalcino, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and Carmignano, all DOCG. But growing success with other reds (especially the stylish non-DOC wines known as "Super Tuscans") has been augmented by new styles of whites to enhance the region's reputation.
Chianti, still the dominant force in Tuscan viniculture, has long rated as the most Italian of wines. This is partly because it is the most voluminous and widely sold classified wine, but also because it has a personality that cannot be pinned down. Its multifarious nature is quintessentially Italian.
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Veneto...
Venice's region has emerged in recent times as Italy's largest producer of wine with a major share classified as DOC or DOCG (more than 300 million bottles a year). Leading the flow is Verona's trio of Soave, Valpolicella and Bardolino. But since DOC represents less than a third of the region's total, the Veneto also figures as a major producer and exporter of IGT wines, often of moderate price.
The Veneto has three general areas of premium wine production: the western province of Verona in the hills between Lake Garda and the town of Soave; the central hills in the provinces of Vicenza, Padova and Treviso; the eastern plains of the Piave and Tagliamento river basins along the Adriatic coast northeast of Venice.
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