[from the Letters archive] An Email from Leslie Piquing our Interest Our friend Leslie Sbrocco, an effervescent wine enthusiast and multimedia celebrity, sent an email this week that tickled our interest.  For more than seven years Leslie has tirelessly promoted the de-mystification of good wine via a combination of print, radio, and television outlets. Recently, Leslie has taken some time off to write her first book. Entitled "Wine on Every Table – The Women's Guide to Buying, Pairing and Sharing Wine", the book is due to be released by HarperCollins toward the end of this year. "Wine on Every Table" promises to bring basic wine education with Lesliesque panache to an audience that comprises the majority of wine buyers in this country: women. Her email message to us this week asked some stimulating questions, which is what both tickled our interest and sparked this letter from Incanto. To augment the section of the book devoted to Italian wines, Leslie asked for Claudio's response to three questions. Claudio and I had so much fun discussing and answering these questions that we decided to share our responses with you. We also encourage you to go out and purchase Leslie's book later this year when it become available. What is the best way to begin exploring Italian red wines? Start with red wines from Southern Italy and then to work your way north.  We say this because we believe the best way to understand wines in general is to start with New World wines, which tend to be more fruit-driven and accessible, before drinking classic wines from the Old World, which tend to be more austere, higher in tannins and acidity, and therefore more difficult to understand and appreciate. Well-made red wines from southern Italy, such as those made from nero d'avola, primitivo, or aglianico grapes, tend to be similar in style to New World wines for a couple of reasons. First, the climate in Southern Italy is much like that in California's wine-producing regions, which leads to similar ripeness and fruitiness in the wine. Second, in recent years in Southern Italy there has been a significant shift toward New World-style winemaking, which yields wines that in many ways are stylistically similar to California wines, though still distinctly Italian in character. Once you are comfortable drinking Southern Italian wines, you will have your own personal Italian beachhead from which it will be easier to understand the classic Northern Italian red wines such as Brunello, Chianti Classico, Barbaresco and Barolo. What is Americans' biggest fear with Italian wines? As with so many parts of life, Americans' biggest fear with Italian wines is quite simply the fear of the unknown.  To our collective misfortune, Italian wines beyond Pinot Grigio and Chianti are not yet widely known or understood in the United States. The main reason for this situation is that the world of Italian wines is complex. More than any other wine-producing region in the world, Italy offers an enormous variety of grapes (have you drunk wine made from fiano, vermentino, lagrein or cannonau grapes?), regional terroir, and winemaking styles. Compared with France, for example, where national wine laws establish very strict guidelines relating to production and labeling of wines, Italian wine production and the laws that govern it do a wonderful job reflecting the fierce individualism that is so ingrained in the Italian character. This freedom means that on the one hand, drinking Italian wine offers the potential for encountering the work of an unsurpassed genius. On the other hand, there is also the potential that you will be confronted with the work of an unmitigated dunce. Without a roadmap or a knowledgeable guide, it is a difficult and at times intimidating land in which to travel. Another significant part of the fault should be blamed on Italian wine buyers, particularly those at restaurants, here in America. Instead of doing the difficult work of searching out well-made Italian wines, most Italian restaurants devote their attention to finding the old standbys, Pinot Grigio and Chianti, at the lowest prices. As a result, many Americans' first experiences with Italian wines are less than thrilling. We hope that Italian wines will find new ambassadors here in the United States, so that Americans can experience the beauty of the wonderful, lesser-known wines that are being made all over Italy today. Why do Italian wines pair so well with food? Italian wines pair so well with food because the origins of Italian winemaking have everything to do with drinking wine with food; treating wine itself almost more as a foodstuff than as a drink. Starting with the Last Supper, bread and wine are together at the center of what eventually became the Eucharist in Roman Catholicism. In secular life, for hundreds of years, it has been common practice that laborers in Italy drink wine with their lunch because wine is considered essential for nourishment and energy. In Italy, not only is wine drunk with meals, since Roman times it has also been commonly used as an ingredient in the preparation of many popular dishes. As recently as the 1950's in Italy, approximately 70% of the population in Italy was involved in winemaking, mostly non-industrial, subsistence farming.  As Americans, many of us grow up with the idea that wine is an elegant, refined drink that defines social class. This is antithesis to the wine tradition in Italy, where wine is interwoven in the fabric of daily life throughout all social classes.  In Italy wine is grown with food, cooked with food, drunk with food, and treated as food. As a result, Italian wines have benefited from more than 2000 years of experimentation for how they relate to food. This, to our great delight, has led to them being a perfect match with Italian food.  Why not drink some Italian wine with your dinner tonight?