Julien explores and details the variety of the best Italian wines. In Pt. 1, we look at some of the best examples of Italian white wine and Italian sparkling wine.
About Italian white wines as mentioned in the video:
Pinot Grigio is the best-seller, as it is mass-produced especially around the region of Venice, and broadly exported as a wine Pinot Grigio delle Venezie in particular. But this popular style is certainly not the best, being often a simple, light and fruity, quaffable wine.
For white wines with not only fruity characters but also balance and depth, look out for some of the classic historic white wines like those of Gavi, Soave, Collio, or Orvieto for example.
Italian whites have the distinct advantage of pretty much always being crisp and refreshing, delicately fruity, sometimes floral and pretty much always subtle and elegant, which makes them always refreshing, easy to enjoy AND very importantly, food-friendly.
About Italian sparkling wines as mentioned in the video:
There are 2 main names here: Prosecco which is a simple, refreshing style that now sells around the world better than Champagne, although, at a much lower price, and a much simpler refinement level also. But a true success story worldwide. It overtook Champagne in terms of production volumes just a few years ago.
For those who know and enjoy the Prosecco style, know that there are some specific crus, or specific areas that make finer and very interesting examples, small areas that make refined expression of the unique Glera grape that is used to make, those locales are Conegliano-Valdobbiadene and Asolo in particular.
The second obvious name as a famous type of Italian sparkling is Moscato, made from very fruity and fragrant Muscat grapes. Generally, quite sweet with plenty of flavors of peach, apricot, grapes, jasmine and honey, it’s a very popular style with younger generations and people that are quite new to wine in general because it tastes like sparkling fruit juice.
Of course, the Italian sparkling Moscato style has been copied, or say emulated all around the world these days, with much Moscatos coming out of California or Australia now. But genuine Italian Moscatos often come under the name Asti or Moscato d’Asti, some of which made by small producers that can be genuinely characterful, so look out for those.
Finally, it is little known outside of Italy’s border, the Italians kind of keep this secret for themselves, but here I am telling you about it, there is in Italy a small production of super-premium sparkling wines that can easily compare in quality and refinement to some of the best Champagnes.
These are called Franciacorta.
Franciacorta wines are made in a very small area in the North of the country, on a very specific terroir, a small patch of land where were deposited sediments of an ancient glaciers.
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00:00 Introduction
01:18 Italy As A Wine Country
03:06 Italy's Best White Wines
04:55 Italian Sparklings (Spumantes)
