Italian Wines
- Details
- Published: Wednesday, 06 March 2013 18:25
- Written by David DeCiero
Ever since I was a teenager, I have been fascinated by Italian wines.This began when I was still in high school and has only gotten more intense.Although I try to search the world for good wines, I always come back to Italy as the place of my favorites.I believe this to be true of a lot of people, since Italian wines represent good value.They are a gateway wine, where most young people cannot afford French wine, Italian wine offers a very good entry into the Old World.I thought I would recount my journey through Italian wines.
When I was younger, I had a fascination with all things wine.This may not have been entirely legal, but I was responsible and never did anything crazy.I remember getting bottles of Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (Beauleau and Rodney Strong) and being fascinated by the relative complexity.Those were $20 bottles, though, and I didn’t have that kind of cash as a poor college student.Instead, I was able to find some great values on Italian wines.The quality seemed to be much better (to my palate) than California and the price was cheaper too.The first Italian wine I fell in love with was Montepulciano D’Abruzzo.This wine is made from the Montepulciano grape and is grown in the Abruzzo region.It is so abundant that bottles of this stuff went for $5-$7 apiece.It wasn’t a fruit forward wine, but rather is what I call rustic.It had the acidic backbone and about one level of fruit to kep you interested.It was a great dinner wine, it went with everything.At $5 a bottle, I could also afford to drink it every day, which was perfect for me.This really piqued my curiosity on Italian wines.If a $5 bottle tasted god, surely I could find more at $10.Well, I tried Lambrusco.I paid about $8 a bottle and regretted all 12 bottles.It was a slightly fizzy (spumante) Lambrusco and off-dry.Lesson learned #1, pay attention to the style.This was definitely not the dinner drink I was looking for and should have paid attention.So, the next trip had me looking a little bit more closely to the labels (and not the pictures).This led me to find Valpolicella.Now, this wasn’t a fancy one, it was the Bolla brand and for $12 you could get a magnum.I liked it.It was slightly different than the Montepulciano D’Abruzzo in that it had more fruit and less acidity.This was OK by me as it reminded me a little bit of my previous forays in California wine.All of these experiences took place in college, but I always seemed to be able to find an Italian wine that fit my taste and budget.
As I emerged from college (still broke), I decided I needed to learn more about the Italian classification system.So, I sent away for a book on the subject to the Italian Trade Commission.They provided me with a great book detailing each region and the wines (both DOC, DOCG, and otherwise) that that region produced.I now had a checklist to get every single wine that I wanted to try.Luckily, these wines are mostly not expensive.Over the next few years, I tried to find as many wines as I could, but I was mostly stymied by a poor selection in local stores.Everyone had the big types (Barolo, Chianti, Brunello, Dolcetto, Barbaresco, and Pinot Grigio), but where were the Vernaccia di San Gimagnanos?How about the Erbaluce di San Caluso?Thankfully, I was rewarded with the opening of a Italian wine store near to my house.As my income grew, I was able to buy more and more different types of Italian wine.The best part was that they were almost always less than $30 a bottle.It was very refreshing to get all of these great wines at what I considered to be a reasonable cost.
Now, I need to contrast this with French wines.My problem has never been with the quality of French wines, I believe them to hold the upper echelon of all wine in the world.I once had the opportunity to try Lafite and I can only describe it as flowers in a glass.The aroma was beyond anything I had ever experienced before.My problem is with the value of French wine.The problem is that I never now if the $50 I spend is going to be a crap wine or a good wine.I have found that 1 out of every 3 bottles for me is “worth it” in French wine.I just can’t figure it out and it requires so much hunting and I still may be disappointed.The value proposition of French wine is just not there.I would rather get consistent quality rather than be frustrated if a wine was no good.The French know about this problem, but continue to have high prices.So, this inevitably leads to a lot of younger people never getting turned on to French wines.Who can afford to spend $50 on a bottle and have it turn out bad?To me, $50 should represent that extreme care was taken in all of the steps in winemaking.Alas, for the French, it is just not consistent.
This was just a reminiscing of my early love for Italian wines (and value).In another post, I’ll go into detail regarding some of the different esoteric Italian wines I have tried over the last few years.