La Dolce Vite: The Best Italian Wines You Need in Your Collection

A classic varietal from Piedmont region, Barbera is a wine that exemplifies notes of cherry, bramble, and plums. Juicy to its core, but concentrated enough to be considered structured. Barbera is believed to have been orginated in the hill sof Monferrato, in central Piedmont where it has been documented since the thirteenth century. Widely planted in the north, Barbera can be fresh and fruity, yielding medium bodied wines with intense fresh red fruit, or it can be more complex, showing more intensity with a bit of oak treatment.

This wine gives off a lovely stone fruit, green apple, and acacia flower aroma with secondary notes of pear, tangerine, and peach. Mineral-driven with a bracing fresh acidity that is both balanced and pleasing.

The practice of drying grapes to concentrate flavour, sugar, and by extension, alcohol, developed in response to the region’s cooler climate: without the heat necessary to reliably ripen red grapes, this was the workaround. However, that same reliably cool climate is perfect for aromatic white grapes like Soave’s Garganega. Vallena’s example comes from 40-year old vines, proof that care and attention in the vineyard and winery can make white wines full of character and complexity. Enjoy this unoaked white at a well-chilled 6 C over the next 2-3 years.

With its finely balanced components – from aromas of black tea to exotic fruity nuances of melon and ripe grapefruit – this is a superbly full and at the same time mellow wine,” from the winery.

Sustainably farmed, this wine is comforting to the nose and the palate, rich in spices, notes of chocolate, dark berries leather and fresh black soil. The De Cherico family estate is located in the heart of Abruzzo’s most splendid viticultural district-in Villamagna, in Chieti. It was in 1910 that Vincenzo, the great-grandpa purchased the plots of land that were destined to become a great wine estate. Plantings of native varietals such as Trebbiano, Montepulciano and Pecorino dominate the landscape.

Primitivo is usually grown in and around Puglia and is known for its bold rich blackberry flavours, dark chocolate and hints of black licorice. The resulting wines are bold in flavour and dark, inky and have big tannins and big alcohol. There are several zones around the Salento peninsula, to note such as Primitivo Di Manduria, and Salento IGT. Incidentally it was Italians that brought this varietal over to the United States and introduced it to the vineyards in California. The name “Primitivo” means “early ripening”. Tenuta Del Pajaru is part of the De Cherico Family of Wineries in Italy. Grandpa Laurentino founded the Puglian estate in the late 1960’s at a time where southern wines were undervalued and underappreciated. It was a risk to be sure. Located in Manduria, a few kilometres from the sea, the landscape is rugged and filled with ochre red earth and historic olive groves. This is hard land to farm: the soils have large amounts of compact limestone which requires the utmost patience and dedication to work. The resulting wines that are made at this estate mimic what the De Cherico family’s philosophy of using only native varietals. It is here that the Primitivo grape shines. Concentrated cherry in its core with baked plums, warm spice, hints of mineral and anise in a full-bodied example of this ancient varietal.

The resulting wine is very fresh with bracing notes of black fruit, violets black cherry and raspberry. The finish is long with layers of pepper and plum.