Italian Wine: The Story

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What is Italian wine? Only the brave or foolish would cheerfully tackle this question. Italy’s reputation both good and bad stems from the fact that she is the world’s most prolific producer and exporter of wines. Volume aside, Italy produces the greatest assortment of wine styles from a staggering number of grape varieties in virtually every differing type of soil, terrain, and climate. Diversity is certainly one of Italy’s wine virtues. Further, Italy’s great wine grapes have not become part of the ubiquitous variety line-up found in virtually every New World winery. Barbera was once important to California but has virtually disappeared while attempts at producing wines from Sangiovese (Italy’s second most planted red grape) have resulted in often-tragic wines void of the charm found in the wines of Sangiovese’s native land. At present, if you want to experience Italy’s great varietals you have to spy the “Product of Italy" moniker on the label.

To the outsider, particularly in the New World, Italy is an ancient place. Rome and the Roman Empire controlled much of modern day Europe, North Africa, and England. It was the birthplace of many of our standards in the world of literature, government, art, and in a vague sense, culture. It is hard to imagine that Italy as a united nation is younger than the USA. Ironically, while the Confederate Sates of America was born in 1861, Italy was proclaiming itself a kingdom under King Victor Emmanuel. It would be another five years until Venice (Venezia) was awarded to Italy for its part in the Seven Week’s War and until 1870 that Napoleon III withdrew from Rome. One year later Rome became the capital of the newly united Italy. Post WWII, Italy changed again from a monarchy to a republic.

Before unification Italy was a collection of sovereign and often unfriendly states each with a unique language, culture, cuisine, and distinct wines. Not until post World War II was the Italian language officially used in each region. Every part of daily life was tied to the region state. Their stories were as unique as their history. Their cuisine grew from the land and the sea and their wines from the omnipresent vines that grew natively or had been introduced by the Romans, Greeks, or the Etruscans. Prior to unification the people of Italy were Tuscans, or Venetians, or Calabrese and while today they are all peacefully Italian, the regional distinctiveness remains.

The transformation of the Italian wine industry was underway during unification but bearing no resemblance to the wine-producing nation that we see today. Historically wines were produced on a Tenuta a large farm estate often controlled by a noble family and worked by sharecroppers, or mezzadri, as they were known. Soon the nobles were on the run as post war Italy was shedding its monarchs and becoming a republic. While monarchies bring to mind a “let them eat cake” attitude the newly formed republic brought about the obligatory bureaucracy and all of its shortcomings. Post war Italy enacted its “Agrarian Reform” designed to redistribute land from wealthy landlords to sharecroppers and peasant farmers. This approach was far from unique and suffered from a common faulty assumption that politicians are morally superior to wealthy landowners or even monarchs. Beyond the obligatory corruption the system was flawed in its design and provided farmers with too little land to make a go of it (at least on their own). The result was a mass migration from the rural farms to the industrial cities of the north and in some cases leaving Italy entirely. It is estimated that some nine million Italians participated in inter-regional migration between the years of 1951 to 1971. During the migration many of these newly formed “farms” were simply abandoned or sold at bargain prices.

The 1960s brought about the good, the bad, and the truly ugly. First, let’s examine the good development. In 1963 the Italian government introduced the DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata) that is a set of laws that defined wine production. Based largely on the French AOC system the DOC determined: which wine districts truly had merit, the geographic boundaries of these wine districts, what varietals were permitted and in what proportions, alcohol strength, and even the minimum aging requirements. The bad was the rise of the cooperative. The cooperative produced and marketed wines produced from grapes/juice purchased from the small farms that often could not afford to purchase winemaking equipment or even barrels. In some cases growers/producers were simply “encouraged” to do so as local politicians owned many of the cooperatives. The cooperatives became necessary following the ugly implementation of the EC’s “Green Plan” which financed colossal plantings of vines. Ignoring for a moment the fact that this growth was anything but organic (no pun intended) the vines were often planted on the fertile plains, which are typically not the best location for wine grapes. The Green Plan in conjunction with the cooperative, flooded the world with cheap and often insipid wines from historically important zones such as Soave, Chianti, and Valpolicella. The result was rapidly approaching production glut and an absolute flogging of the afore mentioned wine zone’s reputations as well as many others. In my opinion, Soave and Valpolicella have yet to fully recover their reputations and Chianti has just barely done so despite producing great wines again for decades.

In light of all of the discouraging developments in the post WWII wine industry you may be wondering how they turned it all around. The answer is really quite simple; self-determination, self-reliance, and capitalism. It is really quite logical (and human) that, when the family name is on the label, rather than the faceless cooperative, far more care goes into the product. When selling to the cooperative there is no incentive to make a better wine than your neighbor when you reward was a set price per liter. Further, without the cooperative in the loop there are no guarantees concerning price or even a buyer. The consumer would determine which labels they prefer and at what price. Granted it is true that the EC responded to the mess and surplus they had created by paying some farmers to rip up vines, while “encouraging” others to sell to large distillers, and paying others to simply allow the grapes to rot on the vine. Despite its tragic post war period, as not much more than a wine welfare state, Italian winemakers found their way and regained their rightful position among the very best wine producing nations.

Understanding Italian wines is a tall order for many wine professionals so it stands to reason that the average wine drinker would find the subject to be challenging at best, if not flatly bewildering. The tribulation often seems greater for US drinkers that are most often weaned on California wines (and other New World wines with agreeable surnames & place names) that are most often named for the predominate grape variety. This results in these wine drinkers being completely unfamiliar with essential Italian varietals such as: Prosecco, Dolcetto, Arneis, Nebbiolo, Corvina, Montepulciano, Aglianico, and loads of others as they are rare if found at all in US soil. Even Sangiovese and Barbera, Italy’s two most prolific red varietals, are infrequently used and wholly foreign to the typical US wine drinker. Further, those raised on New World wines often find the abundance of natural acidity and the lack of residual sugar to be odd if not off-putting at first.

Don’t be baffled any further. Jump into our Italian Wine section and tackle it wine-by-wine, and region-by-region. You will see below that we have divided the information into departments. Might we suggest that you start with “The Story” in order to get a feel for our take on the subject. Regions will send you off to make a choice of which of Italy’s 20 regions you wish to explore.