ROBERT RECOMMENDS
Flavors of boysenberry and bittersweet chocolate dominate when describing this Chilian classic, Secreto Carmenere of the Secreto Colchagua Valley. This one leads to a long rich finish. This Shiraz from Shoofly, hails from the Adelaide hills. Friendly on the palate it exhibits a nose of violets, plums, and blueberry. It has a ripe flavor with a smooth finish. El Coto de Rioja Crianza, is moderately dense dark red in colour. Ripe strawberry and raspberry nose with a note of vanillia. Palate is smooth, balanced, fresh, dry and clean.
ITALY
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Italian wine is wine produced in Italy, a country which is home to some of the oldest wine-producing regions in the world. Etruscans and Greek settlers produced wine in the country long before the Romans started developing their own vineyards in the 2nd century BC. Roman grape-growing and winemaking was prolific and well-organized, pioneering large-scale production and storage techniques like barrel-making and bottling. Two thousand years later, Italy is one of the world’s foremost producers, responsible for approximately one-fifth of world wine production in 2005. In 2008, Italy bested France for the title of world’s biggest producer for the first time in a decade, at nearly six billion liters. Wine is extremely popular in Italy. Italians lead the world in wine consumption by volume, 59 liters per capita. (Compare this to the United States, at 7.7 liters per capita.) Grapes are grown in almost every region of the country. More than 1 million vineyards are under cultivation.