Alla nostra salute, here’s to a dozen Italian winners

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rom brilliant bubbly to rich reds, gorgeous whites and even a delicious dessert wine, here is my pick of a dozen great Italian wines to add to your list.

SPARKLING

Veneto: Drusian, Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore, Extra Dry, NV Drusian

This light fruit-ripe approachable crisp dry sparkling wine is from family-owned winery Drusian – packaged in a very elegant eyecatching bottle.

£14.95, Stone Vine; Good Spirits Co

WHITE

Sicily: Eruzione ‘1614’ 2018 Planeta

Sleek sophisticated blend of local carricante grape with a touch of riesling planted on lava deposits from the 1614 eruption on Mount Etna. £18.50, The Wine Society

Lazio: Bellone 2021 Casale del Giglio

Star Buy

Grown near the coast with yields kept low, this single varietal is enchanting with ripe apple and mango notes. £13.99, Valvona & Crolla

Puglia: Salento Edda Lei Bianco 2018 Cantina San Marzano

This French oak aged creamy complex chardonnay is blended with two local grapes muscatello selvatico and fiano minutolo to enhance grapey peachy notes.

£16, Strictly Wine; Great Wines Direct; Corking Wines

Campania: Falaghna 2018 La Sibilla

This is elegant with rich intense flavours with tarragon hints and a remarkably low alcohol level – perfect for summer drinking. £14.66, Justerinis

RED

Lazio: Cesanese 2020 Casale del

Giglio

This indigenous grape from Frosinone province in Latium produces tiny sparsely clustered grapes which ripen late in October, but if the harvest is delayed it produces distinctively deep coloured, spicy, baked mulberry fruits with velvety tannins.

£14.99, Valvona & Crolla

Puglia: Susumaniello 2018 Vallone

Good Value

Rich ripe fruits with roasted fruit notes, soft tannins and good length for the price.

£8.50, The Wine Society

Marche: Guerriero della Terra 2018 Guerrieri

For those who like big Italian reds, this superb blend of montepulciano and sangiovese proves what potential there is in the little-known Marche region in central eastern Italy. Intense blackcurrants and plums with a very sweet fruit palate, hints of liquorice, spice and vanilla.

£34, Gardabani Wines

Puglia: Negroamaro 2020 Cantina de Falco

Negroamaro is king in southern Puglia, making robust inexpensive reds and fragrant roses. This bright fruited softly tannic example is a great value gentle introduction to the negroamaro grape.

£10.50, Lea & Sandeman

Veneto: Amarone della Valpolicella 2017 Corte Carista

Good price for Amarone – this crafty blend of corvina, rondinella and corvinone grapes which were dried on racks for several months after harvest to intensify flavours. Fermented and matured in oak, the result is a wonderful cherry and raspberry fruited wine with sweet glycerol texture.

£13.99, Aldi

Trentino: Teroldego Morei 2019 Foradori

Amphora fermented (in tinajas from Villarrobledo in Spain) and aged eight months on skins, this teroldego shows the trentino grape at its very best achieved after years of biodynamic farming. Single vineyard morei is remarkably intense, dark, minerally and dense – made by Emilio, Theo and Myrtha Zierock, the children of Trentino’s teroldego pioneer, Elisabetta.

£30, Vinissimus; North South Wines; Solent Cellar

SWEET Pantelleria: Ben Rye Passito di Pantelleria 2018 Donnafugata Star Buy

Sensational wine from windswept volcanic Pantelleria island, off Sicily. The intense flavours results from hand-picked grapes chilled and pressed with dried grapes added at intervals during fermentation in stainless steel. Floral grapey nose, intense caramel and toffee flavours. £49 hf bt, Valvona & Crolla

Join Rose’s Fine French Classics Dinner in Prestonfield, Edinburgh on Thursday 1 December, www. rosemurraybrown.com