Italian Red Wines
With hundreds of native grape varieties, many of which never even leave the borders of the country, Italy is a treasure trove of wine diversity! One key theme is often the high acidity found throughout Italian grape varieties, making Italian wines incredibly food friendly. Though Italian wines are often named for the region, like their French counterparts, the grape varieties are often a supporting character. Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino's Sangiovese is well-known, as is the Nebbiolo of Barolo and Barbaresco.
Many Italian red wines benefit from decanting, or allowing the wine to breathe for a bit in the glass, before drinking. Though Italian winemakers tend to work primarily with their abundance of native grape varieties, its becoming more and more common to see the influx of foreign grape varieties, particularly those of France, in the making of the increasingly popular Super Tuscan wines.
