Asda Extra Special Rosso di Montalcino, Italy 2018 (£18, Asda) Italian red wines can be a bit of an acquired taste. They’re not always smooth, soft, or evidently fruity (although they can be). They tend, rather, to be a little edgy, with many of the country’s remarkable palette of indigenous grape varieties naturally providing a mix of elevated, mouth-watering (and sometimes eyewatering) acidity and – when compared to the frictionless texture of, say, a supermarket Chilean merlot or Argentine malbec – a perceptible feeling of dry chewiness from plentiful tannin. That means that, with one or two exceptions, they’re not the kind of thing you would crack open to sip on their own on the sofa of an evening. These are wines that are intended for food, and it’s amazing how a mouthful of, for example, rich meaty ragu can transform what can seem difficult or even bitter into – in the case of Asda’s authentically grippy Tuscan Rosso di Montalcino – a deliciously sour cherry-and-oregano-scented complement and condiment.
Baiocchi Sagrantino, Montefalco, Umbria, Italy 2015 (£17.49, waitrosecellar.com) The ability of Italian reds to match food is evident at every price level. Tesco’s generic Italiano Vino Rosso d’Italia NV, for example, is considerably more quaffable than its (remarkable in this day and age) £4.50 price tag, or its somewhat vague (“sourced from the hills and plains of Italy”) origins, would suggest. But as well as being perfectly drinkable on its own it has sufficient tanginess and tannic nip to do the job of washing down a pizza. At a whole other level of quality and profound sensual loveliness (and price), Fuligni Brunello di Montalcino 2017 (£89.50, leaandsandeman.co.uk), which is made in the same place (Montalcino in Tuscany) using the same grape variety (sangiovese) as the Asda Rosso, has the mix of winter-sun brightness and hazy autumnal savouriness to grace any feast (including Christmas dinner), while Baiocchi’s Umbrian red, made from one of Italy’s most famously tannic grapes, sagrantino, has a deep, dark, earthy intensity and burly structure that makes me crave a very bloody T-bone steak.
Umani Ronchi Fonte del Re Lacrima di Morro d’Alba, Italy 2020 (£15, Tesco) United by their gastronomic qualities, Italy’s reds are incorrigibly diverse in every other respect: only French vignerons can collectively offer quite the same range of different flavours and textures. That’s not surprising when you consider that the vine grows all over a country which starts in the Alps and finishes less than 90 miles from the coast of Africa – and that Italian winemakers in the country’s 400-odd appellations (330 DOCs and 77 of the supposedly highest-quality DOCGs) make use of just under 400 grape varieties in their production. A quick varietally various tour of unusual Italian reds I’ve enjoyed recently might start in northern Trentino with the crunchy blackberry and black cherry of Terrazze della Luna Teroldego Rotaliano 2021 (£8.29, allaboutwine.co.uk), then stop off in the centre in Le Marche with the intensely violet and rose-floral, inky dark blackcurrants of Umani Ronchi’s take on the lacrima di morro d’Alba grape variety, and finally finish in Sicily with the refreshingly strawberry-and-sour-cherry-juicy Santa Tresa Rina Russa Organic Frappato 2022 (£10.99, Waitrose).
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