Joelle Thomson's Amazing Value Picks: The Italian vino collection

Italy is a hot bed of wonderfully weird grapes and an incredibly diverse range of wines made from them. Ever heard of Cococciola, Roviello or Bonda? I didn’t think so. Me neither, truth be told, until I stumbled across them in one of my favourite wine books, Native Wine Grapes of Italy. The book’s author, Ian d’Agata, digs the dirt on Italy’s great and unknown grapes to uncover fascinating facts about the history of this beautiful country and its wines. This week’s tasting pack is the tip of a long iceberg of deliciously smooth, full bodied reds from Italy. They may be big, full bodied and red, but they drink well year round. Try them. Buy them. Star wine of the week - 2017 Il Sarone Vino Rosso 17/20, 4 stars How do they do it? The Italians are masters at making juicy, full bodied dry red wines that are fantastically good value for money and here’s a great example. Il Sarone (“Eel sah-rone-ee”) is a big, dry, fruity red with savoury spice notes and is a vino de tavola style (made from grapes grown all over Italy). It’s good quality and great drinking, without a crazy price tag to match. 2017 BelColle Dolcetto d’Alba DOC 17.5/20, 4 stars Dolcetto comes from north west Italy and is a seductively soft fruity red with low acidity, which makes it a crowd pleaser. This wine lives up to its reputation, over delivering smooth velvety flavours at an affordable price. Dolcetto has declined by 18% since 2000 to make way for higher priced wines in its home region, so grab a bottle or two. View here. 2017 BelColle Barbera d’Alba DOC 17.5/20, 4 stars Barbera is one of Italy’s five most planted grape varieties and one of the 15 most planted grapes in the world, so it’s a wonder we don’t see more of it here. Its signature flavours are freshness and vibrant zingy red berry appeal. This is a lively dry red. View here. 2017 San Marzano Naca Primitivo Puglia IGP Bio 17/20, 4 stars Primitivo is the most popular red grape in Puglia, south east Italy, where it makes big, juicy red wines such as this certified organic one, with its earthy savoury flavours. Good value. View here. 2017 Signore Giuseppe Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 16.5/20, 3.5 stars Montepulciano originally comes from central Italy’s Abruzzo region but it grows in a wide range of regions throughout the country, producing fruity, full bodied, dry and spicy red wines with loads of character and (usually) a pretty modest price. This spicy red is soft and smooth. Great drinking year round. View here. Signore Giuseppe Lambrusco Dell ‘Emilia DOCG 16.5/20, 3.5 stars Vino frizzante means this wine is lightly sparkling and it’s a style the Italians do extremely well from Prosecco to Franciacorta to bubbly Lambrusco from the Emilia Romagna region. The Lambrusco grape rules supreme there and because it’s made mostly in high volume, it’s easy to forget how tasty it can be – and often in a high quality style too. This is a super refreshing, drink-me-now white Lambrusco. Joelle Thomson is a wine writer, journalist and author. She’s an avid lover of wine and currently writes for Capital magazine, Good magazine, NZ Winegrower, Drinksbiz, and her own site, www.joellethomson.com. She also teaches, works in radio, and more, so we've enlisted her help to sniff out our amazing value wines!