Italy

Italy accounts for twenty per cent of global wine production and with vineyards covering the country from top to bottom, it produces quality wines of all colours, tastes and styles. Wine was introduced to the South of Italy and Sicily by the ancient Greeks and techniques developed by the Romans established a wine culture that would go on to create some of the finest wines in the world. Italy suffered from Phylloxera and problems with low quality high yields as vineyards started producing in bulk. Italy has recovered since, made efforts to reduce volumes and has recently seen a rapid increase in the quality of its wine.

Italy has strict regulations for its wine regions called DOCs, the Italian equivalent of French AOCs, and its thirty-two DOCGs which identify the Italian fine wines can only be obtained through a quality assessment by blind tasting. Most of these DOCGs are found in the wine regions of Piedmont, Veneto and Tuscany. Italian fine wines include big names such as Chianti Classico, Barolo and Brunello but also exceptional fine wines that do not meet regulations such as Sassicaia. Wines like this come under the IGT classification for quality wines that do not conform to the DOCs, such as the ‘Super Tuscans’ and often use French grape varieties and in particular Bordeaux style blends. Italy has excellent wines across all its regions and now Italian fine wines are among the best in the world.