Italian sale offers some uncomplicated winners

People often say that Italian wine is complicated, and there’s something in that. There are whole swathes of France and Spain, for example, where vines don’t grow. In fact, there are parts of Bordeaux and Burgundy where they don’t. In Italy, it seems like every parish has a vineyard so, yes, there’s a lot of wine, a lot of regions, a lot of grapes, many of them not very familiar to us.

SuperValu’s Italian Wine Sale starts next Thursday and there’s an eclectic range at very keen prices until early June. Many of the wines featured will be more than worthwhile, even when they go to full price. Altego Piemonte DOC is one worth watching out for. The Dolcetto grape is much softer and more accessible than its neighbour, the tough and tannic Nebbiolo, and this example is indeed soft and round but it has grippy tannins too. It’s down from €17.99 to €12.

Another gem is Banfi Rosso di Montalcino, the estate owned by an ItalianAmerican family who made their fortune distributing Coca-Cola on the East Coast of the US. It has a touch of bramble jelly with added spice and tobacco, a fine example of this strain of Sangiovese at €18, down from €26.99. The Ricossa Barolo at €16.70, down from €24.99 is surprisingly forward, supple and delightfully fragrant in that distinctive way of the Nebbiolo grape.

I reacquainted myself recently with some of the wines from the GuerrieriRizzardi estate, centred on Bardolino. Contessa Maria Cristina, now retired, was at school with the Ursulines in Waterford and you can get a hint of an Irish accent in the way she speaks. Her children now run the enterprise and are continuing her work in making the whole operation more eco-friendly, minimising chemical agents and making the winery as sustainable as possible. I feature two of their wines this week, ones that are really worth seeking out.

It’s a wild generalisation, but with a large degree of truth, to say that Italian reds tend toward high acidity. I think this may be one of the reasons why they are so food-friendly. Tomato-based sauces are a case in point and Montepulciano d’Abruzzo seems very much at home in this company although Valpolicella, including the Ripasso versions, also perform well. Primitivo, from way down south, much less so; but they are beefy wines and can take a fair amount of spice.