Although its wine industry has had something of a chequered history, today Italy is producing some of the world's favourite and many of its finest wines.
With very few areas of Italy that couldn’t ripen grapes suitable for wine, there are consequently a myriad of classified regions producing a diverse array of wines.
Wine making in Italy has a long history dating back to, and before, Roman times; indeed it was thanks to the conquests of the Roman Empire that wine making was established in France, Spain & Germany.
Today, modern day Italy is a huge source of wine and, depending on the vintage, is the world’s largest or second largest wine producer. In 2016 it was No. 1 (ahead of France and Spain) with an estimated production of 48 million hectolitres, some 19% of the global total of ~ 260 million hl – that’s more than 34 billion bottles!!!
Several geographical characteristics make Italy well suited to wine production including:
an extensive latitudinal range from north to south that permits wine growing from the Alps in the north to Sicily in the south.
Italy is a long peninsula with an extensive shoreline giving a moderating climate to coastal wine regions.
the extensive mountains and foothills of Italy provide many varied altitudes for grape growing and a variety of climatic and soil conditions.
a Mediterranean climate affects much of the country providing excellent conditions for successful viticulture.
Italy has a wine classification system based on four classes, two of which fall under the “Table Wine” category and two under the “Quality Wine Produced in a Specific Region” – QWPSR – category.
Table Wine
Vino da Tavola (VDT) – Denotes simply that the wine is made in Italy. The label usually indicates a basic wine, made for local consumption with limited amounts exported.
Indicazione Geographica Tipica/Protetta IGT/IGP – Wine from a more specific region and considered of a higher quality than simple table wines. Today many top wines fall into this category because they do not conform to the strict rules governing the QWPSR wines.
QWPSR:
Denominazione do Origine Controllata (D.O.C.)
Denominazione do Origine Controllata e Garantita (D.O.C.G.)
Both D.O.C. and D.O.C.G. wines refer to zones which are more specific than an IGT, and the permitted grapes are also more specifically defined.
D.O.C.G. wines must pass a “blind” taste test to attain this, Italy’s highest wine quality standard.
Wine Regions
With so much variation it is hard to single out individual wines, but here are a few suggestions from the main regions.
North west Italy is dominated by the wines of Piedmont with heady reds and elegant dry whites. Barolo, Barbaresco, and Gavi are top of the list but also look out for delicious light and sweet wines from the Moscato grape perfect for warmer weather.
North eastern Italy is the home of the hugely popular Prosecco but also lightish reds from Valpolicella & Bardolino. The region’s top wine is definitely the powerfully flavoured Amarone certainly not for the faint hearted.
Central Italy equals Tuscany, home to Chianti and Brunello whilst on the Adriatic side of the country the Marche and Abruzzi make excellent, affordable whites and reds look out for Verdicchio and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, both excellent value white and red wines respectively.
In the hot south the wines of Puglia (Italy’s “heel”) have become fashionable in recent times. Choose red wines from the Primitivo or Negroamaro grapes rich and rustic with real warmth.
Finally Sicily, renowned for Marsala, is now producing lovely, spicy reds from the Nero d’Avola as well as whites from Grillo.
