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Italy is one of the biggest wine-producing countries in the world, along with France. It produces roughly 20% of the world's total yearly wine output. Wine is an essential part of the Italian diet -- taken with almost every meal -- and Italian culture.
The best known Italian wines are the light-bodied reds: Chianti Classico, Valpolicella, and Montepulciano, found as accessible table wines the world over. More complex and challenging are the full-bodied, tannic Barolo and Barbaresco from the Piedmont regions, as well as the Super-Tuscans that lie outside the DOCG system. The best-known white is Soave, an extremely dry, light white without strong character, and revellers the world over know Asti spumante as an inexpensive alternative to Champagne. But with an ancient vinicultural tradition, and hundreds of local grapes that don't grow anywhere else, Italian wine is a ripe area for exploration.
edit Facts and figures
Italy's close rivalry with France as the second-biggest wine producer is well-known, and it outpaces it next closest rival, Spain, by almost 2-to-1. In 2006 Italy produced 4.9 billion litres of wine and must for local and export use -- 2.1 billion of white, 2.5 billion for reds and rosés, and another 200 million litres of must for indirect use.
The majority of Italy's wine is vino da tavola, at 2 billion litres. DOC/DOCG and IGT wines are made at 1.5 and 1.3 billion litres each. About 2.1 billion litres of wine is exported from Italy each year, mostly to Germany, the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and Switzerland.
Italy has about 1 million independent vineyards of varying sizes, with around 800,000 hectares of land under vine. Although impressive, this is a drop of about half from the country's high point in the early 1980s.
edit History
In pre-classical times, Italic tribes on the peninsula made wine from wild grapes, and gradually began cultivation of the vine. The Etruscans were notable wine-makers in Central Italy. By the time of the arrival of Greek colonists in the southern regions around 800 BCE, local wine production was already flourishing. Magna Graecia, the Greek colonial area, was so fruitful with vineyards that the Greeks called it Oenotria -- the land of wine.
The Roman conquest of Italy had a number of effects on Italian wines. Conquest of other cultures, such as Greece and Carthage, brought the wine-making experience of those regions into Italy. As the Roman Empire grew, the market for Italian wines -- highly protected in the imperial economy -- mushroomed. Additionally, increased wealth made luxury crops like wine more and more valuable. All this led to creation of huge wine plantations on the peninsula, operated almost entirely by slave labour. The consequence dominance of viticulture in Italy made Emperor Domitian forcibly close many vineyards in the first centure CE to make room for food crops.
Classical Italian wine-making suffered two major blows. The first was increased competition from the colonies of Spain and Gaul (France), which by the late classical period were productive enough to make Italy a net importer of wines. Second, the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century CE brought about a collapse of the integrated Mediterranean economy. The rising Byzantine Empire moved the region's economic centre of gravity eastward, and Byzantines sold wine produced in the eastern Mediterranean to the detriment of Italy's product. The spread of Islam, with its proscriptions against drinking alcohol, further reduced Italian wine's market in the regions.
Through the Dark Ages, Italy's wine was largely for a local market. Some export to Northern Europe was made, but competed with French wines, which were closer to the growing markets there. Wine is an essential part of the Catholic sacrament, and wine-making became an important role of the monastic community in Italy. Italian monks, through a tedious process of trial-and-error, documented their growing patterns with wine grapes and developed the beginnings of modern viticultural knowledge.
Increased wealth during the Renaissance, a fascination with classical Greco-Roman culture, and an increasingly scientific outlook brought Italy's wine-making into the modern era. By this time, however, France's concentration on luxury goods in its economy was skyrocketing, and Italy played a secondary rôle in the development of wine techniques. Italy's division into many small states didn't help its profile on the international market for wines.
By the 19th century, with the introduction of cork stoppers, Italy had begun mass production of wines, and its wines were well-known around the world. Their reputation, however, was as inexpensive and lower-quality alternatives to French wines. The arrival of phylloxera at the end of the century had disastrous effects, but the newly unified Italy responded with national management of this important economic resource. The thousands of grape varieties previously grown were carefully narrowed down to the hundreds we see today, chosen for their hardiness in different climates and ability to adapt to the new grafting techniques that phylloxera required.
The early 20th century saw Italian wine get on its legs as a contender in the world market, as production techniques became more modern and less prone to spoilage in shipping.But Italian producers took advantage of the country's hot southern climate to push high yields in their crops, generating large quantities of inferior-quality wine. The country's reputation on the world stage was for making low-cost "pizza wines". Decimation of the country's economy in both World Wars and the Great Depression did nothing to encourage producers to target the fine-wine market.
In the 1960s, a national effort to raise the country's profile brought about the first controlled-appellation laws. Although only a relatively small percentage of Italian wines are certified, recognition of DOC and DOCG wines brought a higher level of quality to the entire industry. Today many Italian wines can stand up in fair comparison with vintages from other major producing nations.
edit Geography
Most of the Italian peninsula is hilly or mountainous, with protected valleys near the coast, so growers can move their vineyards to the right altitude to get the right kind of humidity and temperature for the vine.
Probably the biggest problem with Italy's geography is that it's almost too perfect. Growers have the right conditions to get big yields from the vine. This kind of production gives lots of wine, but typically not very good wine. Other regions, where the grape and the grower are more "challenged" by the locale, give more of the difficult but complex wines that connoisseurs prefer.
edit Climate
It would be hard to design a body of land more perfectly suited for growing wine than Italy. The country is at a great latitude for vineyards, of course, but it's also a long, thin peninsula extending almost north-south far into the Mediterranean. This gives the classic warm-air-plus-cooling-water effect for great wine.
edit Viticulture
The country's wine industry has adjusted to massive changes in the last 30 years in Italian demographics. It can no longer be as dependent on domestic consumption as it was in the past. As in other European countries, health-conscious younger people no longer consume wine with each and every meal -- opting more and more often for non-alcoholic drinks.
This has meant an increase in Italy's production for export, and a resulting change in the types and scale of wine produced.
edit Appellation system
Italy's 20 wine regions are coterminous with its 20 political regions. Here are the appellation systems by order of (theorical) quality level:
- Denominazione di origine controllata or DOC: official classification for wines of controlled origin
- Denominazione di origine controllata e garantita or DOCG: another system with more strict rules
- Indicazione Geografica Tipica or IGT: a more recent system, with broader territories
- Vino Tipico: controlled origin, similar to Vin de pays in France
- Vino da Tavola: table wines
- Vino da Tavola con Indicazione Géografica: table wines from a controlled origin
edit See also
- Italian Made - the official site for Italian food and wine
- Italian wine on Wikipedia
