True North

Italy’s north has diverse terrain and climates, but it may be its food that most influences its wine.

- Max Allen

I’m sitting in an old farmhouse in the hills near Verona. Outside, the rolling landscape is blanketed with grape vines, some trained the traditional way on tall pergolas, and interspersed with old cherry trees. Inside, Nonna has just dished up plates of wilted wild greens and hot slices of succulent pink cotechino. Everything plays out with glasses of the farmer’s own deep-purple Amarone in hand.

Italy is home to 20 main wine regions, seven of which are found in the cooler north of the country, ringed by France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia. Each of these regions is home to local grape varieties and wine styles that have evolved over centuries, moulded by that region’s climate and geology, history and culture – and perhaps most of all by its food.