Confused?

So are most people when trying to buy Italian wine. The number of grape varietals grown throughout Italy is staggering (estimated at over 2,000), and the regions are just as prolific. Unlike Germany and France, every area of Italy grows grapes that are used to make wine. The best-known are, of course, the Tuscan areas of Chianti and Montalcino and the Piemonte area of Brunello. There are hundreds more, however, that make both well-known and little-known wines. That’s where it can get super confusing.

When navigating the tangle of vines that make up the Italian wine landscape, the most important thing to help you is the label. This may sound simplistic, but if you remember the basics about how the Italians label their wines, it will make it easier for you to track down something you like…or at least know the right questions to ask the salesperson or sommelier.

Like France and Germany, Italy has wine laws that require producers to include specific grapes in wines that feature only an area’s name on its label. For instance, if a wine is called Barolo, that means that it is from the area of Barolo (a subregion of Piemonte). It also means that, due to Italian wine law, this red wine is made exclusively from the nebbiolo grape.

The reason for this naming practice is the same as it is in France: quality. The idea is that if a specific Italian wine is so spectacular as to be known the world round, it should be associated with the specific area that it is made in and not with the grape it is made from. Nebbiolo can be grown anywhere, but Barolo can only be made in Barolo.

What about all the wine made in places that don’t have names like Barolo, Chianti and Montalcino? That’s where wine naming in Italy becomes unique. In these other areas, the name of the wine will actually tell you everything you need to know. Take, for instance, the white wine trebbiano d’Abruzzo. What the name of a regional Italian wine like this tells you is what the wine is made of (the trebbiano grape) and where it is from (the Abruzzo region).

Now that everything‘s clear, there will never be any reason for you to be confused when purchasing Italian wine ever again. Right?

Sadly, this is not the case. As with the riddle I posed in the opening, there will always be strange and confusing conundrums in the Italian wine world. This is the result of an ever-evolving language forged from different regions that, until the 20th century, had little to do with each other aside from proximity. Montepulciano the grape grows throughout central Italy, but most famously in the area of Abruzzo. There, it is made into the popular montepulciano d’Abruzzo. While there are many delicious montepulciano d’Abruzzos made with style and finesse, most are considered, by and large, quaffing wines for the masses.

Montepulciano, the area, on the other hand, is a medieval village in the region of Tuscany. There, a wine called Vino Nobile di Montepulciano has been made for hundreds of years. This wine isn’t made from a grape called Vino Nobile (it is made from a clone of sangiovese called prugnolo), but the name comes from the noble reputation of those who drank it. Once considered on par with its Tuscan brothers Montalcino and Chianti, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano’s status as one of the three great wines from Tuscany has fallen a bit in recent years.

The main thing to remember when you are tasting Italian wine is geography. Take notes on what wines you like from specific Italian regions. This will help you the next time you are in a wine store or at a restaurant and are confronted with nothing but a name staring back at you.

Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.

Obsessing over the uniquely Italian wine

It goes without saying that Italy is a wine-obsessed country. It makes perfect sense that they are; every area of Italy is a wine-producing region. Every single one. And it’s all, for the most part, really great.

In addition to the culture being centered around wine, there is a “waste not want not” attitude that the country’s winemakers have toward the grapes themselves. Nothing goes to waste in the winemaking process. And that is, more or less, where grappa comes from.

Grappa can start fights. You either love it or hate it. I love it. My wife hates it. Anytime we’re out at a nice Italian restaurant, I make a point of having a glass at the end of the meal, while my wife enjoys a glass of limoncello.

While I love grappa, I certainly understand why some people don’t. It is, most definitely, an acquired taste. But those who drink it don’t merely like it. They obsess over it. Those who are truly fanatical are called tifosi di grappa, which literally means “I have a fever for grappa.”

Grappa was made, originally, out of necessity. After a wine is made, there is a tremendous amount of waste. All of the skins and seeds (and sometimes even stems) are left over in the fermentation tank after the wine has been either bottled or put into barrels. At some point, an ingenious Italian winemaker decided that it was a bad idea to keep throwing all of this stuff out. So he decided to make something out of it.

By pressing the leftovers (the pomace), a liquid is obtained that is then distilled. This results in a very pure, very clear liquid that is much higher in alcohol than any wine. Because it takes so much to make so little, it is also very expensive. That exclusivity and uniqueness is celebrated in the bottles that are made to hold the liquor. Often long, thin, hand-blown glass bottles, the containers are as much a work of art as the stuff inside.

Grappa had a bad rap for a long time, though. Up until the 1990s, most of the grappa imported into the United States was made from a mixture of many different types of grape pomace. This made a liquor that was, at best, often strong and peppery. At its worst, it was a bit like drinking lighter fluid.

Real grappa drinkers knew that the best grappa is made from single varietals, though. Just like the wine made from those grapes, that grappa would vary in flavor and character depending on what it was made from. The fever caught on in the United States, and now it is relatively easy to find great single varietal, or monovitigno, grappa.

My favorite type of grappa is grappa di moscato, made from the pomace of the moscato grape. One of the best available in the states is the Marolo Grappa di Moscato ($8.99 at K&D Wines, 1366 Madison Ave., at 96th St., 212-289-1818). The harshness of the distillation process is balanced by the natural mildness of the moscato grape. You can taste the sweet, floral quality of the varietal and even get a hint of the signature peach and nectarine flavors present in many great moscato wines.

If, however, you are bolder and your tastes run more on the adventurous side (or you just have something to prove), try the Bertagnolli Grappa di Amarone ($36.99 at 67 Wine and Spirits, 179 Columbus Ave., at 68th St., 212-724-6767). Amarone wine is made from grapes that are dried before pressing, so it goes without saying that whatever is left over from those already shriveled grapes is going to be strong, indeed. While the grappa has some of the characteristics of an amarone (dried fruit flavors and hints of coffee and chocolate), the main event is the peppery mouthfeel and the…shall we say…“warming” finish.

Whatever your tastes are, give grappa a try before you dismiss it completely. You might be pleasantly surprised.
Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.