Quality Wines – Italian always the best

I just heard an interview on CNBC. The journalist asked some “expert” about quality wines, wine as an investment and price appreciation. The so called expert spoke only about French wines. This evidences that perception is reality. In other words, since French products have several decades of penetration into the US market while Italian product distribution is only most recent, the French wines command a higher price.

France, the place where they can manipulate the wine’s alcohol content by adding sugar. France is the place where producers add methanol to increase the alcohol content. France is the place where they sell “wines” that in Italy cannot even be called wine. There are some good and great wines in France however buying a French wine is much riskier than buying an Italian wine. When you buy an Italian wine, it is wine, made from grapes, no additives.

This is good for us consumers; I personally never buy, and rarely drink, French wines, but that has a great deal to do with a love-hate relationship between the French and Italians. Give me a Sassicaia, Guado al Tasso, Tignanello, Barbaresco, Refosco, Barolo, Solaia, Aglianico di Taburno, Brunello, Roero Arneis, Prosecco or Pinot Grigio any day. If the world perceives French wines as higher quality the prices of the best wines in the world will remain contained and I am fine with that.

Tags: Food and Wine Travel Italy