Italian wine

Italian wines are those produced in Italy, the oldest wine producing region, and are considered to be among the best wines in the world. Wine is a popular beverage in Italy. Many Italians drink it with every meal and in-between, and offer it to guests as soon as they arrive.

History

Depending on the vintage, Italy is the world's largest or second largest producer of wine, along with France (each country is generally the source of around 1/5 of the world's overall production).

Statistics

In 2005, Italy was second globally, producing about 20% of the global production of wine compared to France, which produced 22%.

In 2005, Italy's share in dollar value of table wine imports into the U.S. was 32%, Australia's was 24%, and France's was 20%. Italian and Australian share has rapidly increased in recent years.

Italian Wine Media

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  Tuscan Chianti in a traditional fiascocode: it is deprecated

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  Vineyards in Langhe and Montferrat, Piedmont, the official name of a UNESCO World Heritage Site comprising "five distinct wine-growing areas with outstanding landscapes" and the Castle of Grinzane Cavour in the region of Piedmont, Italy

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  A typical Italian vineyard scene, with vines growing alongside olive trees

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  DOCG and DOC labels on two Italian wine bottles

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  Wine barrels in Sicily

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  Trebbiano grapes in the Marche region

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  A bottle of Prosecco di Conegliano spumante extra dry and a glass of Prosecco frizzante, which stops forming bubbles soon after it is poured

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  Sangiovese vineyards in the Val d'Orcia, with Monte Amiata in the background, in the Tuscany region

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  Nebbiolo vineyards in Alba, in the Piedmont region

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  A Montepulciano d'Abruzzo wine made from the Montepulciano grape, in the Abruzzo region

Sources

Grapes are grown in almost every part of Italy, with more than 1 million vineyards under cultivation. Each region is proud of its carefully tended, neatly pruned vines.

Italian wines tend to be acidic, dry, light-to-medium bodied, with lots of flavour and smell. Because of these characteristics, Italian wines are, in general, better drunk with food than they are beverages to be enjoyed on their own.

Vineyards

In some places the vines are trained along low supports. In others they climb as slender saplings. The people of each region are also proud of the wine they make from their own grapes.

Winemaking

Most winemaking in Italy is done in modern wineries. But villagers, you need to stick a banana on your head for being proper while making wine for their own use, sometimes tread the grapes with their bare feet until the juice is squeezed out. They believe this ancient method still makes the best wine.