Midway between Milan and Rome, Tuscany is bordered on the west by the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Apennines mountain range on the east.

First inhabited by the Etruscans, in the Middle Ages and continuing through the Renaissance, Tuscany developed into a center of the Arts and Learning under the control of the Medici clan. And no art was more developed here than that of winemaking. Even before the Etruscans migrated to the area, wild vines grew in abundances around Tuscany’s sun-drenched hills. Those early settlers developed those early grapes into the world-famous Sangiovese and Lambrusco.

Combined with these are the Cabernet Sauvignon, Canaiolo, Ciliegiolo that go to make Montalcino, Scansano, Carmginano, along with the more well-known Chianti. Adding to the variety are plentiful Mammolo, Malvasia, Colorino, Raspirosso, Gamay, Moscatello and others. Not limited to reds, there are the delightful whites of Elba Island, Vermentino, Bolgheri and Val di Nievole.

Tuscany boasts four of Italy’s nine top-rated DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) classified zones. At only one shop in Tuscany the number of available labels has grown from 1,000 a few years ago to over 5,000 today. Small wonder Italy now vies with France for the world leader in wine production.

Produced by vineyards that range from the Castello di Fonterutoli owned by the same family since 1435 to ones founded only a few years ago, Tuscan wines are experiencing an all-time high in quality and popularity.

The importance of quality is nowhere more evident than at Rocca delle Maccie. Organic fertilization, careful pruning and hand harvesting, and the use of oak barriques for aging are just some of the practices instituted at this estate. An active member of a consortium of Chianti Classico growers, they produce one of the best selling wines in Italy.

As another example, the Fassati Nobile di Montepulciano, made from a blend of Prugnolo Gentile (a clone of Sangiovese Grosso), Canaiolo Nero and Mammolo, was praised as far back as the 18th century by Voltaire.

Wines produced here range from the simple Chiantis to the complex super Tuscan reds, with fruity aromas. Beginning with the change in vineyards and viticultural methods of the 1970s the 1996-on vintages have entered world class.

The ’super Tuscans’ became popular as more international style reds began to be produced from Bordeaux-style blends of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot along with the Sangiovese. Labeled ‘table wine’ to circumvent counter-productive government regulations, they are now anything but. Among these outstanding new reds are the Brusco dei Barbi, celebrated among connoisseurs.

Not to be outdone by makers of red, the Bolgheri Vermentino is a delightful, fruity white which pairs perfectly with shrimp. And once the province of France only, the Cabreo Chardonnay competes on equal footing.

The Renaissance lives on in Tuscany.

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Right: Wine map of Italy

One of three main Italian winemaking regions, Piedmont lies at the confluence of the Tanaro and Borbera rivers, 45km (28 mi) southeast of Turin in northwest Italy. Moderately remote in this crowded modern world, it’s braced by the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the south.

Bordered by the French and Swiss Alps, Piedmont is far from the Mediterranean that produces such fine wines. Yet, here the hot summer climate encourages Nebbiolo, a late ripener that ages wonderfully, producing wine high in tannin, with perfect acidity and aromas of rose, mint and licorice. Spicy fruit flavors of cherries with hints of violets show the reason Italy vies with France for the top wine producer in Europe.

The Piedmont region divides into two major areas, Alba in the southwest, home to Barbera, Barbaresco and Dolcetto, and Asti to the southeast.

Piedmont is also home to the traditional Barolo, where skins are soaked for twenty days both during and after fermentation. This helps highlight tannins in the wine that lending it an austere quality in its youth, but also able to evolve over time.

Aging, usually for a minimum of four years, is carried out in traditional old oak barrels, allowing the acidity and tannin to show through more aggressively. The robust red Barolo improves with aging, in a technique that goes back centuries. Nearby Barbera has a beautiful deep color and acidity, but is lighter in tannins.

Barbera should not be confused with the Barbaresco, similar to Barolo only 10 miles distant. The latter are made with 100 percent Nebbiolo and have a slightly lower alcohol content and require less aging.

But youth has come to the area in another way too. Newer winemaking techniques use new oak barrels used to add a hint of vanilla to counter-balance a natural tendency toward tannin and acidity.

Dolcetto, the other major wine of the Alba region has less acid than Barbera, but more tannins and a bit more spice.

Asti, by contrast to these reds, produces excellent, light sparkling whites made from the Moscato, rich in floral and peach aromas. Ironically, the wine named Moscati d’Asti is a non-sparkling version.

All these wines have been perfected over a period of three thousand years, centuries longer than the oldest French wines. Considering Italy’s small size, at three-quarters the area of California, its production of 8 billion bottles per year is even more astounding. Though only seventh in production, Piedmont stands first in quality.

Much of the great red of Piedmont forms an upper price barrier for many, with bottles going for $60 or more. But there are still good Piedmont products to be found for less.

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Chianti — the name says ‘wine’.  A mere 300 square km (115 square mi), in the center of Tuscany between Siena and Florence, Chianti overlooks the Elsa Valley. Hilly, the terrain varies from green forests to stony meadowland. The rows of wine grape vines share the land with olive groves and the occasional oak tree.

The Phoenicians introduced winemaking to the area and it became known as ‘Oenotria’, the ‘land of wine’. The sun and mountain air attracted Greeks, Etruscans and Romans who in their turns introduced new vine species and growing techniques. Italy during the decades after the turn of the millennium was known for having the largest harvests and the finest vintages in the Mediterranean.

But beginning in the 18th century, the perceived quality of Chianti wines dipped to a low. In the 1880s, phylloxera —an insect that feeds on the roots and leaves of vines— destroyed many of Europe’s vineyards. But, the vintners of Italy struggled heroically to recover from the loss of indigenous varieties.

In 1968, land in Chianti was, as the saying goes, ‘dirt cheap’. The situation has come full circle. Visionaries took advantage of the low land values and have rebuilt the vineyards and the wine into product that rivals the best in the world.

The Continental climate in Chianti favors grape production with stable, consistent, moderate weather. The stony and dry soil infused with limestone rock provides ample light and warmth to the vines. Irrigation is allowed only in emergencies so vines naturally delve deep to acquire water and nutrients.

The eight sub-regions, Chianti Classico, Colli Arentini, Colli Fiorentini, Colli Senesi, Colli Pisane, Montalbano, Rufina and Montispertoli, all have their own distinctive techniques and products. Like the French AOC (Appellation d’Origine Contrôllée) designation, Italy has its own classification methods for ensuring quality product: DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) which specifies requirements for growing and winemaking.

Today, Italy grows more than 100 official varieties of vitis vinifera, the vine species that forms the starting point of 99 percent of the world’s wines. The noble reds of Chianti have become known throughout Europe as fine wines, of which there’s no better expression than the Classico.

Out of a total of 10,000 hectares (~24,700 acres), two-thirds are registered for the production DOCG Chianti Classico, produced by using at least 80 percent of Sangiovese.

Varieties other than the Classico include Sangiovese blended with Canaiolo (up to 20 percent) and Colorino. For whites, a Trebbiano or Malvasia are used. Yields are limited by law to nine tons/hectare in an effort to keep quality high.

There are no legal requirements, though, dictating aging in oak, but many vintners prefer it for their Riserva wines with 12% alcohol content by volume.

The Chianti red is a deep ruby, which tends to pomegranate when aged. The flavor is dry, slightly tannic, with an intense aroma, sometimes hinting of violet.

As Italian vintners, in traditional style, continue to work around restrictive regulations, the Chianti’s world reputation increases apace.

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The winemaking tradition in sunny Sicily dates back as far as four thousand years. Over those millennia the Sicilians, named for the settlers who introduced agriculture there, have raised wine grape growing to the level of the Italian Renaissance artist.

In the far west, nestled among the rugged Gibellina Mountains is their masterpiece: the Mazara Valley. Larger than Piedmont or Tuscany, the grapes here that ripen under the hot sun are often used to fortify the weaker wines made in northern Italy.

The heart of the region lies between Salemi and Marsala, the latter giving its name to the traditional hearty wine originating there. There, thanks to warm temperatures, hilly terrain, sea breezes and rich soil, conditions combine to rival the best found in California.

Gifted with such terroir, the country produces more wine per year than Australia and New Zealand combined. Merlot, Chardonnay and Sangiovese are grown, of course. But there are also indigenous varieties such as Insolia and Catarratto.

Of course, a major portion of that output is the dessert wine Marsala, actually originated by English merchant traders two centuries ago. In the past, scorned for its association with cooking wines, there are connoisseurs now that favor its complex flavors in the form of Marsala Vergine and Superiore Riserva. In some years, Sicily provided fully a third of Italy’s total production of this sweet nectar.

But far from one-trick magicians, the artisans in one of the world’s oldest winemaking regions also produce delicious whites made from a blend of Insolia, Damaschino and Chardonnay. And the reds, once scorned as overbearing, now count among their number such delights as Nero d’Avola. Sometimes compared to Syrah, they age well and sell for as much as sixty dollars a bottle in the finest restaurants in New York and London.

Such works of art come from techniques developed over centuries. The sophisticated vintners may prune the vines by as much as 35% to concentrate the flavor, then harvest the fruit at night to avoid the scorching Sicilian autumn sun. The grapes are then stored in cooled vats to avoid premature fermentation. From this is produced the high-reputation vino da taglio grape must.

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Stretching from the hills of the Apennines to the banks of the Po River to the shores of the Adriatic Sea is a distinctive Italian winemaking region called: Emilia-Romagna. Famed for its cooking, the area boasts some of the most fertile plains for grape growing in Italy.

The regional capital of Bologna joins the two sections of Emilia and Romagna and together these two cousins of winemaking rank sixth in size at 22,000 square km (8,500 sq mi) and 8th in population with nearly 4 million souls.

Vineyards of the area cover over 58,000 hectares (144,000 acres) producing an annual total of 473 million liters. Whether from the cool terraces of the Alps or the torrid fields of the Po basin, the wineries here contribute almost 20% of total Italian wine production. They rank a proud fourth after Apulia, Sicily and Veneto, helping to achieve Italy’s off-again on-again world dominance (against France) in wine production.

Trebbiano and Sangiovese alone account for almost half the varietals grown here. The Sangiovese remains the local favorite red with its robust and fruity flavors, but there’s also a delightfully dry Lambrusco in a style rarely seen outside the country.

The Lambrusco grapes are grown on high trellised vines mostly in the flatlands south of the Po where the output reaches 50 million bottles a year in the four DOC (Denominazione di Origine Controllata, a legal designation) regions around Modena and Reggio.

The better known Sauvignon and Chardonnay, and also the Pinot and Cabernet, are still wildly popular, of course. But, the rarer varieties, such as the white Pagadebit and red Cagnina, are well-hidden, but highly appreciated local treats. And from the hills south of Imola, Forli, and Rimini come many zesty semisweets.

Reds range from the Barbera and Bonarda with their distinctive regional intensity all the way to the pungent Pinots and Merlots of Colli Piacentini and Colli Bolognesi.

For those preferring something lighter on the tongue there are the dry whites of Ortrugo, Albana and Malvasia. The latter, thought to be of Greek origin, is among the most cultivated in all Italy. The native Albana, which produced Italy’s first DOCG (Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita) quality white, has high acidity and produces a wonderful dry Albana Passito with hints of apricot.

For the cognoscenti, there’s even the excellent Primitivo di Manduria from Puglia with medium to medium-high alcohol content, perfect for pairing with chocolate.

Best of all is to visit in the fall, after the hot and humid summer and sample from one of the many fine, traditional wineries set among the glorious green flat plains of Emilia-Romagna. And be sure to ask to pair with the local cheese. Not to be missed.

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