TALK magazine published by Orascom Telecom in Cairo, Egypt. All rights reserved.
Understanding Italian wine can be a daunting task. Some wines are named after the grapes the wine is made from, some are named for the area where the grapes are grown, some are named for a style, and some are combinations of the above. But with a few tricks it can be easier to make sense of the Italian wine landscape.
One rule of thumb worth noting is that most Italian wines are designed to be drunk with food. While there are exceptions (especially among white wines), Italian wines that may be merely good while sipping at a cocktail party will take on a new life when drunk with a few bites of food: the natural acidity of many Italian wines marries perfectly with food, making the wine taste more complex and the food taste more vibrant.
Also, most are meant to be drunk young. While many of Italy's great wines (such as the three great "Bs": Barbaresco, Barolo, and Brunello) can age and gain complexity for decades, the vast majority are designed to be consumed upon release and only a few are bottled to last as long as ten years.
The initials Denominazione di Origine Controllata (Italian for "Denomination of Controlled Origin"), or D. O.C., on a label is not exactly a guarantee of a great wine, but it does mean the wine in the bottle was produced using legal standards and practices required for that type of wine. When in doubt, D.O.C. (and slightly more exclusive D.O.C.G.) wines are probably safer bets than most alternatives.
Some types of wines that are particularly agreeable to novice wine drinkers include Barbera, Chianti, Dolcetto, and Montelpulciano among reds, and Frascati, Pinot Grigio, and Tocai among whites. Prosecco, from north of Venice, is a very accessible kind of sparkling wine, and Moscato is an easy-to- like type of dessert wine.