New wave Italian

I have spent much of the past couple of months writing a book about Italian food: a far less onerous task, I discovered, with a glass of something Italian for company.

There is undoubtedly more excellent wine being made in Italy today than ever before – despite, I should add, the frustrating tendency of some winemakers to put the best of their crop into new French oak barrels for a year or two, then into heavy bottles with fancy labels and equally flashy price tags.