Veneto is a substantial and increasingly important wine region in the north-eastern corner of Italy. Administratively it forms part of the 'Triveneto zone' which is completed by its smaller neighbors Trentino-Alto Adige and Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In terms of its geography, culture and wine styles, it represents a transition between the alpine, Germano-Slavic end of Italy and the warmer, drier, more 'Roman' lands to the south.

Veneto is smaller than Italy’s other main wine producing regions Piedmont, Tuscany, Lombardy, Puglia and Sicily, yet it still manages to generate more wine than any of these big names. While southern Italian regions Sicily and Puglia were once the main source of Italian wine (quantity was consistently favored over quality), this balance began to shift northwards towards Veneto in the latter half of the 20th century. In the 1990s, southern Italian wine languished in an increasingly competitive and demanding world, while Veneto upped its game, gaining recognition with such wines as Valpolicella, Amarone, Soave and more ...

Italy is a country steeped in history, culture and cuisine, as well as a rich vinicultural heritage. Over the centuries the Greeks, Etruscans and Romans all played a significant role in the development of different wine styles, the way grapevines were grown, the evolution of winemaking traditions and the considerable changes in methods of storage as wine moved from amphorae to bottle.

Italian winesare made with the aim of partnering Italy's rich and varied cuisine; subtle flavors work in harmony with the food without making too bold a statement. As they say in Italy, wine should be ‘non impegnativo’, meaning it should not demand too much attention.  

There is no mistaking Italy on a map, with its long, boot-like shape. Famed for its huge diversity of terroirs, grape varieties and wine styles, Italy is third only to France and Spain in terms of land under vines, producing 51.5m hL of wine per year. Italian wine is the most widely exported in the world, with Germany, Great Britain and the United States being the main importers.

Grape Variety Chardonnay

Chardonnay is the world’s most famous white wine grape. Its spiritual home is Burgundy in France, but it has known seemingly unlimited popularity in wine regions the world over, from Italy to California, Chile to Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. This rampant success has made it periodically fashionable to ‘dislike’ Chardonnay; at one point ABC became widely accepted as an acronym for ‘Anything But Chardonnay’. This has done nothing to slow down the vine’s spread, however. Its marketability and economic allure continues to earn it an ever greater acreage in the world vineyard.

Chardonnay is most widely appreciated not for its own intrinsic flavors but as a vehicle for other influences, most notably the oak in which it is fermented or matured (or both). The choices made regarding oak usage when making Chardonnay are of vital importance to the qualities (and quality) of the finished wine. Chardonnay which has been both fermented and matured in barrels, particularly if left on its lees, tends to boast a certain finesse in its oaky flavors, and better aromatic integration all round. It also demonstrates greater stability and therefore be more ...