Native Italian Wine book

The next best thing to tasting native Italian wines is to read about them and, by chance, the first Guide to Autoctonous Italian Vines is present at the Prowein wine trade fair in Düsseldorf from 18th to 20th March.

The book is published in Italy by Touring Club Editore and Vinibuoni d’Italia will be highlighting twenty six wineries selected for the 2007’s issue of the guide in Germany.

The Guide lists 1,000 wineries introducing over 3,500 wines that have been sampled and classified by the authors and twenty regional tasting commissions coordinated by specialised journalists and sommeliers.

These wines are all crafted from Italian indigenous vines, i.e. varieties that have been growing in Italy for more than three hundred years and represent the best of the “made in Italy” wines.

A good native wine is judged on fragrance, pleasantness, balance and elegance.

The wines must have low wooden quality and reveal on the palate and nose the variety of the territory in which the grapes were grown.

These are quality wines that are expression of the Italian oenological culture and history.