Creative Writing | Guide to Wine | Genealogy

Italian Wine

In the 80s the Italians churned out some pretty ordinary wine - and we drank it in huge quantities. But twenty years later these producers have learnt their lesson and are producing wines that offer light relief from the predictable flavours of Ozzie Chardonnay.

Every leisure pursuit from birdwatching to abseiling has its fair share of hardened nutcases who love nothing more than a tortuous challenge. Wine appreciation is no exception - and there are few wine-producing regions to which hard-core enthusiasts are more obsessively attracted than Italy. In the same way that vintage car enthusiasts love the unpredictability of old engines, so fans of Italian wine love the quirks and eccentricities to be found in the character reds and quirky whites of Tuscany, Piedmont, the Veneto, Basilicata and Sicily. They seem to find the predictable flavours and consistent quality of New World wines so mind numbing that they prefer to go in search of a bit of danger among the wild, wonderful and in some cases ruinously expensive wines that Italy offers. There is no doubt, either, that many people are attracted by the romance of Italian wine - the exquisite castelli, sweeping vineyards, crumbling wineries and fabulous food proving the theory that wine drinkers are better disposed towards wine regions where they would actually like to be.

But like all European wine-producing countries, Italy has taken a knock in recent decades. While in the 70s and 80s we were happy to quaff indifferent Chianti, Soave, Pinot Grigio and Frascati with our lasagne al forno, the arrival of more flavoursome, fruitier wines from Australia and Chile spelt the end of the heyday of cheap and cheerful Italian wine.

Since then, two things have happened. The first is that mass-market producers have realised that they must clean up their act and either set out to improve the quality of their wines or try to emulate the success of the New World by producing fruity, good-value Chardonnays, Sauvignons, Merlots and Cabernets. The second is that at a higher level a new generation of smaller producers, particularly in areas such as Piedmont and Tuscany, have concentrated their efforts on creating fabulous - and fabulously expensive - wines that age beautifully.

The bad news is that Italy now provides a more complex minefield for drinkers than ever before, with the result that it demands more radical filleting than almost any other wine region.

TASTE TEST - REDS

Barolo
Good-quality Chianti
Inexpensive Chianti
Salice Salentino
Expensive Australian or Chilean Cabernet

To help your palate feels its way around the different flavours, compare these wines side by side so that you get a feel for the profile of the different flavours and aromas offered by each of them.

TASTE TEST - WHITES

Soave
Frascati
Orvieto
Sicilian Chardonnay
Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

With a few exceptions these are wines - like those from France and Spain - in which style and region take precedence over the grape variety. Chianti, for example, is made from a blend that includes a grape called Sangiovese that is indigenous to Italy, Soave is made from Garganega and Trebbiano grapes and Barolo from Nebbiolo. But how much do their contents matter, particularly since many of these wines contain blends of more than one grape and are made by people who care more about wine that reflects its origins than its grapes?

Tasting Italian wines also requires a particular mindset. As in many countries where wine is ingrained into the national gastronomic culture, wine is an integral part of a meal but not the main attraction. Anyone used to the big, attention-grabbing flavours of New World wines will find the more shy and retiring nature of wines such as Soave and Frascati hard to fathom. Imagine drinking them with a spaghetti carbonara on a boiling hot afternoon in Tuscany and their appeal suddenly becomes more apparent.


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