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Winemaking and appreciation have one of the most advanced specialist vocabularies in the world, and whilst comprehensive and useful, it can make an already confusing field even more impenetrable. It’s alright for the connoisseur looking to buy wine online, the array of search options allow for the finest appreciation of a new wine. But some of us just need to know what colour a wine will be, a little else. Amusingly, the situation is even more complex than these websites reveal. What is behind one of the greatest shifts in wine classification? The move towards so called ‘New World’ wines.

Both growers and buyers used to put more emphasis on the region in which a wine was grown, but now the emphasis seems to increasingly be on the type of grape used. Chablis and Champagne are still recognisable regions emblazoned on wine labels the world over, but the international recognition for Chardonnay wine seems set to rapidly replace them. California may be rightfully taking its place as a world power in wine production, but we do not yet associate ‘Californian wine’ with any specific type.

As the world’s horizons have expanded, the extent of the wine growing regions have expanded with them. ‘Terroir’ is the term we usually used to describe the geography, geology and climate in which a grape grows best. Whilst certain grape types have seemed to thrive almost regardless of these factors, ‘terroir’ is a term that still has worthwhile currency. Even with the broadest strokes of these resilient grapes, there is a subtle hint of soil, weather and treatment carried into the wine. A Chablis Chardonnay undoubtedly has a different taste to a New Zealand Chardonnay.

The narrow growth potential of certain grape varieties adds to their appeal enormously. Nebbiolo wine comes primarily from North East Italy, and is in fact a grape type that is almost exclusive to the Piedmont Region. And even there, only 3% of the crops are grown with this grape type. Whilst the difficulty of Nebbiolo fermentation is certainly behind its minority status, the specific terroir it requires has few matches globally. This pushes prices higher, and keeps derivatives like the delicious Barolo highly sought after.

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Let me say this straight away – I love everything Italian, especially a great wine list, great food, great people, and most important of all, fabulous wine. Not only does Italy make some of the greatest wines in the world, historically they have also helped to spread wine around the world.

Good Italian wines are flooding into the country, whereas 20 years ago you would have been lucky to find the odd bottle of cheap Chianti in an Italian restaurant, now serious Italian wines with real personality, and most importantly for every budget, are everywhere.

One of the best things about enjoying Italian wine is without paying a hefty price, you can benefit from their endless charm and character. While an Italian wine may not have the impact of a full bodied Shiraz from the Barossa Valley, it compensates nicely with a tonne of rich savoury fruit flavours and diversity.

Always best with food there is nothing that matches a bowl of spaghetti Bolognese or a plate of lasagne like a bottle of smart Italian red wine.

If you want to start getting into Italian wine, try your local independent wine shop or one of the many Dan Murphy’s or Vintage Cellars and hopefully they can help out. But here are a few tips to start:

Italian wines are normally labelled after regions rather than grapes. For example Chianti is a region is Tuscany that makes red wine largely from the Sangiovese grape.

Italian wines often don’t have as much oak and fruit flavour as the local drop so what you are tasting is just the grape variety and where the wine has come from. The white wines are normally quite delicate in flavour while the reds are often savoury and rustic.

A great wine list should have wines from these Italian regions: Brunello di Montalcno, Primitivo di Manduria, Sagrantino di Montefalco, Sicily, Barolo, Barbaresco, Valpolicella Classico, Soave Classico, Alto Adige, Collio and Chianti Classico.

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So with the world cup furore over for another four years we can all wrench ourselves out of our armchairs, de-robe our cars and houses of St.George banners, and start speaking to the wife again. It was one of the most unpredictable competitions in decades with many of the favoured countries making a swift exit, most notable no-shows in the the final eight were France, Italy and England. South America appeared to be faring better at this stage but big guns Brazil and Argentina fell at the last hurdle leaving an all- European clash for the final. Uruguay were the shock of the tournament but were widely chastised for performing their very own ‘hand of god’ act, knocking out local favorites Ghana.

For a second year running then, European football fans have won bragging rights over their South American counterparts. The opposite is happening in the Wine industry however with some really flavoursome grapes coming out of Soutj American regions like Argentina, Chile, Brazil and Mexico at the moment. Chile in particular is producing some sterling Reds, the grapes grow in rich, fertile soil on the high altitude vineyards of the Maipo and Raphel Valleys.  Just like their bold young squad who gave Spain a real scare in the group stages, Chilean wine such as the full bodied Cabernet Carmener Montgrass are challenging established European favourites such as Spanish and Italian Wine

The Argentinean team are widely regarded as one of the best in the world, while their wine producing capabilities may not live up to that glorious accolade at present, they have all the ingredients to be one of the major players in the industry in the not to distant future. Just as their starting eleven is made of a huge pool of individual talent, the touch of Messi, the dogged determination of Tevez, their Vineyards posses a range of qualities. The Mendoza and Patagonia regions can boast the purest water flowing from the Andes, clear, unpolluted skies and year round sunshine adding up to make the ‘Argies’ a major player in the Wine World Cup

Even if your country didn’t fare to well in the football this summer, take comfort in the fact that they probably produce an amazing wine that will help you relax and forget all your World Cup worries, at least until 2014!

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We all love a nice glass of wine, whether it’s an Italian wine after a tough day at work or an Australian wine with friends and family at an al-fresco dinner party, for some of us however, a bottle and a glass is simply not sufficient for extracting maximum enjoyment from our poison of choice. While using additional equipment to serve alcoholic beverages may seem fussy and unnecessary to some, you may be surprised to learn that decanters were being used by the ancient Greeks thousands of years go. It emerges then that aids tio wine drtinking a not some superfluous 21st century product, they simply fell out of fashion in our convenience obsessed and time-poor culture.

It is time to start bringing this kind of kit back into general usage; after all, what’s the use in splashing out on a decent grpae if we’re not going to get maximum enjoyment out of it? Most of us hurriedly deposit the wine into an unsuitable glass, get it down the hatch and be done with it. This is not the way to enjoy a fine vintage. The first job is to make sure your wine is the correct temperature, whites and champagnes are best served chilled so if you are having a dinner party or BBQ, invest in a cooler to maintain a stable temperature.

When the wine is the desired temperature, ensure you de-cork carefully and with a well made cork-screw to avoid unsightly lumps floating around in your fine vinatge. While we’re on the subject of glasses, get some better ones! A long stem will allow you hold the glasses without warming the wine with your hand, while a wide bowel will allow the aroma of the wine to circulate, enhancing the drinking experience, especially with Alsace wines.

Once the wine is open it would be a good idea to use an arealator to introduce more oxygen to the bottle, allowing the wine to breath. A decanter of course performs a similar function. In the unlikely event that you don’t polish off all of your wine, a stopper is an absolute essential so it doesn’t inherit the smell of left-over pizza from your fridge. Of course if you really knew your stuff you’d have a rickety old wine rack wine the basement! There are some simple products to make your next glass of wine into a taste and smell explosion rather than just a drink.

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