Italy produces some amazing dessert wines

Its official. I was fortunate enough to be taken to one of the best Italian restaurants in London recently and was shocked at the range of dessert wines available. Admittedly my knowledge was previously limited to a couple of regions in France, Ice wine from Austria and some rather indifferent syrupy wine from Australia. The range and complexity of some of the Italian sweet wines is outstanding, this restaurant alone has over 14 to choose from. Three from Sicily, four from Veneto and a range from around the rest of the country. Light, floral, sweet and non cloying I had a delicious I Capitelli Passito Bianco from Anselmi and it was outstandingly good. Try it, its well worth the effort and for those who are interested the restaurant was Locanda Locatelli.

Its all Greek to me

I've just come back from a short trip to Athens. Now the Greeks are not especially recognised for their wine and so it was with some trepidation that I thought I would try some of their local Reds to see how they were doing. Choosing one to try from labels that look like spiders have crawled all over them was hard but I did recognise Cabernet Sauvignon on a couple and being a creature of habit headed straight for what I like.

I am delighted to report that they were not bad at all. Like the french they tend to be nationalistic about their choices so it was impossible to get anything other than Greek wine but I am glad that the standard has improved way beyond my previous visit nearly 20 years ago. The reds were robust, fruity and very similar to South America in taste and style. Apparently there are over 300 indigenous grape varieties in Greece of which about 60 are used today.

My advice would be to give them a go, if you can find any. My local branch of Oddbins does have one or two so if you are fed up with the usual suspects then impress your friends with something different. The best selection I have found is through mail order at Yamas Wines so if you are feeling brave give it a try, you might surprise yourself...