Buying Italian Wine

Italian Wines To Purchase

Italian Wines To Purchase

When considering Italian wines to purchase there are three points that you should keep in mind. The average amount per bottle you want to spend, what types of food you eat most regularly, and last but certainly not least, what wines in the past have you enjoyed.

Italian Wines To Purchase

With the literally thousands of Italian wines to choose from I frequently get asked which Italian wines would I recommend that people buy. Since it’s a very open ended question I usually follow up with a few questions of my own to get a feel for the person’s eating and drinking habits. This will help me determine the most appropriate wines for the person to stock his or her wine cellar without breaking necessarily breaking the bank.

Perhaps the most important decisions you’ll have to make about determining which Italian wines to buy is remembering the wines that you’ve really enjoyed in the past. You don’t know how many people I’ve met that stocked their wine cellar with wines that other people recommended only to find out that the cellar owner does not much care for drinking their own wines. Buyer beware! Determine what you like to drink first and then start making buying decisions. There’s nothing worse than owning a cellar full of wine and then having to go to the store to buy more wines that you actually want to drink. I would suggest going to a good Italian wine merchant and telling them to put together 2 mixed cases of wine, including whites, reds, and sparklers, that cover a myriad of flavor profiles. Then, over the next two months as you pour through all the wine, make little notes about which wines you enjoyed and which ones you could have left on the shelf for someone else. This will be the best $300 you spend in determining your very own flavor profile before you start spending real money on your friends favorite wines.

Now it’s time to determine a budget per bottle threshold. There’s no sense in recommending amarone to someone if they like big powerfully structured reds if they don’t want to spend over $15 per bottle. The fortunate part is that Italy offers a blinding array of wines at all prices and styles so chances are I can find a wine that is going to fit both the palate and the purse. If your budget is $10 per bottle then we can easily find a smattering of reds, whites, and sparklers that will make for enjoyable drinking. Within this budget we can offer some plump and ripe primitivo to quench your fruity red thirst as well as some mouthwatering verdicchio for summertime sipping. As the budget goes up so does the complexity and power of the wines from which to choose. Even if you have $30 a bottle to budget it doesn’t mean abandoning those appropriate $10 wines for the occasion. It does however mean that there will be plenty of room in your cellar for some brunello, barolo, and grand spumanti.

Your eating habits are also an important part in choosing which Italian wines to buy. If you eat a lot of simply prepared fish and salads with fish and light dressing then I would recommend that you stock up on white wines like verdicchio, vermentino, tocai, and greco di tufo. These are all white wines that are a true pleasure to drink on their own but that really sing with food, especially fish and grilled poultry. The real kick is that most of these wines will not cost you over $15 in your local retail store. Pot roast, grilled steak, or pizza the mainstay of your diet? You may want to lean towards stocking your cabinet with some structured roses from Sicily and Calabria as well as some heartier reds such as barbera, sangiovese, corvina, or nero d’avola. Here the prices range on these red wines from $10 up to $50 depending on style so it’s best to keep a close eye on your budget at this point.

Knowing which Italian wines to buy is simply a matter of following your palate and then your wallet.