Today, I’m going to focus on Italy. I’ll have to admit that when I used to think of Italy and wine, I thought of the straw covered bottles of house Chianti served in most Italian restaurants during my young adult days. However, today it is a new ballgame. Today, not only does Italy produce a lot of wine, it produces a lot of good wine, too, with excellent QPRs as well.

Italy received great press and notoriety with their Super Tuscans, jazzing up their Sangiovese with Cabernet Sauvignon and other of the top international varietals. In Tuscany, the revolution spread to Chianti with vast improvements in Chianti and especially Chianti Classico wines. In Piedmont, Barolo and Barbaresco have always been respected, but now you see some good Barbera as well.

The ultimate compliment to Italian wines is that you are seeing so many wine producers in the United States experimenting with Italian varietals such as Sangiovese, Barbera, Pinot Grigio, and even Nebbiolo with varying degrees of success.

In our quest to qualify to join the ranks of the Wine Century Club last year, we tasted a number of Italian wine varietals that we had never tasted before and found several that we really liked to add to our list of Italian favorites. Below is a list of some Italian wines that not only are of very good quality but are good values (high QPRs) as well. (Quality: “x” stars out of 5, QPR: “x” bangs for your buck out of 5)

2001 Vietti Castiglione Barolo $30, Quality: 4, QPR: 5
2001 Felsina Fontalloro IGT (Super Tuscan), $35, Quality: 4, QPR: 4
1999 LaGerla Brunello di Montalcino, $20, Quality: 4, QPR: 5
2005 Pasetti Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, $13, Quality: 4, QPR: 5
2003 Cesari Amarone della Valpolicella, $37, Quality: 4, QPR: 4
2005 Michele Chiarlo Nivole Moscato d’Asti, $10, Quality: 4, QPR: 5

The best thing about Italian wines is that they pair so well with food and not just with Italian food. The crisp acidity of the whites and the tanginess of the reds make some of the most food-friendly wine anywhere. And everyone I’ve known that has visited Italy says that Italian wine country is one of the best tourist destinations in the world. It’s on our short list of future wine trips. If you go before we do, let us know what you think.

(Photo from Vietti)

Who is #1 in Wine? Italy Makes their Claim was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.

All four of us Wine Peeps thought both of these wines were excellent. When we pulled off the sacks after dinner to see what we had been drinking, we found two Italian red wines, the 1999 La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino from Tuscany and the 2001 Vietti Barolo Castiglione from Piedmont. You may remember that we had the Vietti for Wine Blogging Wednesday #42 in February. We loved it then and still love it now. The La Gerla was new to us. We had heard good things about it but had not had a chance to taste it yet. It certainly met our expectations. I would love to have either of these wines again.

We picked up both of these bottles at Wine Exchange a while back. At the time, the La Gerla cost us $20 and the Vietti $30. This was a classic example of Wine Exchange offering some outstanding wines at great prices. Unfortunately, they are now sold out of both and as you’ll see in the tasting notes below, the prices are considerably higher at other outlets now. I encourage you to sign up for the Wine Exchange’s e-list to receive email updates of specials as they come available. You can get some great deals from them before the prices skyrocket and/or the wines sell out.

Back to the wines for those of you that are not as familiar with the wines, grape varieties, and regions in Italy. Brunello di Montalcino is a red wine made from 100 percent Brunello grapes (a Sangiovese clone) produced in the vineyards around the town of Montalcino located in the region of Tuscany. Barolo is a red wine made from 100 percent Nebbiolo grapes produced in the vineyards southwest of the town of Alba in the region of Piedmont.

1999 La Gerla Brunello di Montalcino: 100% Brunello (a Sangiovese clone). Very dark, inky purple. Earthy aromas and strawberry flavors dominate. Balanced tannins with a medium-plus finish.
Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 3 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: Black Tie Wine & Spirits (New York), $58.95

2001 Vietti Barolo Castiglione: 100% Nebbiolo. Bright red with slight browning around the edges. Very fruity with cherries and licorice on both the nose and the palate. Bold, robust tannins and a long, lingering finish.
Quality: 4 stars (out of 5)
QPR: 5 bangs for your buck (out of 5)
Where to buy: WebWine.com (California), $37.25

Private Tasting: Italian Red was originally posted on Wine Peeps. Wine Peeps - Your link to great QPR wines from Washington State and beyond.