Italian Food And Wine

Just like with love and marriage, with Italian food and wine, you just cannot seem to have one without the other. Wine is extremely important in Italian culture. The drink is served with just about every meal, and more often than not, different wines will accompany each course.

Italy's climate, soil conditions as well as its diverse culture and rich history make it one of the largest wine countries in the world. Just as with Italian food, wines vary from region to region and often families have their own vineyard. For about three thousand years, Italians have been making, bottling, and enjoying wine. Due to the Greeks nickname of "Enotoria", Italy is known all over the world as the "land of wine". Evidence has been found dating back to the Etruscian period that illustrates early wine making techniques.

Italy produces some of the finest wines in the world. Italian food and wine is spread throughout several distinct regions, and there are twenty wine regions in the country. Not only do Italians enjoy this delicious beverage with their own meals, they produce over twenty percent of the wine that is distributed around the globe. Of course, the grapes that are grown here are also some of the finest in the world. Each piece of fruit has its own unique taste and it is because of this that Italy has over three hundred and fifty "authorized" varieties of grapes on record. There are approximately another five hundred non-authorized varieties in use as well. Thanks to the abundance of this sweet fruit and long growing conditions, several variations of red, white, and sparkling wines are produced and exported each year.

Italian food and wine focuses around painstaking care, fine ingredients and tradition. Today, wine is produced much the same way it has been crafted for centuries. Much of Italy's large population is involved in some way with wine production. So the next time you sit down to a delicious Italian feast, uncork a bottle of authentic Italian wine and drink in the rich history.