ITALIAN WINES
‘Italian wines’ are believed to be the world’s most popular and oldest wines. Vineyards in the country started as early as Second century B.C, with the Etruscans and the Greek settlers were believed to be first to plant them. Nowadays wine making in Italy is done in modern wineries.

TYPES OF ITALIAN WINES
Generally Italian wines can be divided into two categories:
• Rosso (Red)
• Bianco (White)

TYPES OF RED WINE
The Italian red wines can be further sub divided into following categories:

SANGIOVESE
Sangiovese is derived from the Latin Sanguis Jovis or ‘the blood of love’. Sangiovese is the principal grape that is grown in the Tuscany region. These wines mainly composite cherry fruit, earth and cedar. Some of the wines produced using Sangiovese are Chianti Classico, Rosso di Montalcino, Brunello di Montalcino, Rosso di Montepulciano etc.,

MONTEPULCIANO
This variety is mainly grown in the coastal areas of Abruzzo. These wines generally develop silky-plum like fruit with light tannin and friendly acidity. But these varieties are not grown in the town of Montepulciano.

CORVINA
This variety is mainly responsible for the production of famous wines like Valpolicella and Amarone. It has dark cherry fruit and spice aromas. These varieties may even take more than 40 years of age.

DOLCETTO
It grows along with Barbera and Nebbiolo. It means ‘The little sweet one’ and makes wines that are brightly colored and has aromas of plums and blackberries. It is suitable for everyday drinking.

NEBBIOLO
The name means ‘Little fog’ in English. Another idea is that the name comes from the Italian word ‘nobile’ which means noble. It is one of the more difficult wine varieties to master. The wines are known for their elegance and bouquet of wild mushroom, truffle, roses, and tar.

BARBERA
It is the third most-planted grape variety of Italy. The wine has bright cherry fruit aromas and is very dark in color with a food-friendly acidity.

NERO d’AVOLA
This variety is mostly unavailable in the international wine markets. This kind of wine is robust and is an inky wine and hence named as ‘the Barolo of the South’. This grape produces wines that have sweet-tannins along with flavors of pepper and plum.

NEGROAMARO
The name means ‘Black and Bitter’ in English. These types of varieties mainly consist of spicy, toasty, and full of dark red fruits and tend to be very rustic.

MALVASIA NERA
This variety is mainly from Piedmont. It is a Sweet and perfumed wine elaborated in the passito style.

AGLIANICO
It is mainly grown in Campania and Basilicata. They are generally thick skinned and spicy wines which are both rustic and powerful.

SAGRANTINO
These types of wines are very much limited. They are planted only in 250 hectares. Inky purple, with rustic brooding fruit and heavy tannins, these wines can age for many years.

SUPER TUSCANS
This term includes all of the Tuscan red wines that do not adhere to the Italian blending laws. They are generally prepared by mixing two or more varieties. The first ever Super Tuscan is called a Vigorello. They do not conform to the strict DOC(G) classifications.

These are the main types of red wine. Most of the red wines are not distributed to the world markets because locals consume the wines. So Wine tourism is conducted especially for wine lovers to taste all the varieties of red wine.

Bottles of deep-red wine waiting for labels

Italy has many major varieties of red wine


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