In Vino Veritas

The insider’s guide to Italian wine, from the author of How to Drink Like a Billionaire

- Mark Oldman

If you’re going to drink like a billionaire, you have to drink Italian wine. No glass so ably matches the lusty flavours of Italian cuisine, be it the blissful combination of a piercing friulano with creamy burrata or a Barbaresco with a steaming plate of buttered pasta and shaved Alba truffles.

We all know the likes of prosecco, pinot grigio and Chianti, any of which can be deeply gratifying when well made, but this is just the tip of the tiramisu that is Italian wine. With more than 300 grapes and a dizzying number of wine regions, it is the wine world’s crazy quilt of complexity. The good news is that this prevents even most experts from becoming experts on Italian wine, which takes the pressure off—and makes it that much harder for snobs to show you up. If you learn just a few good types, you’ll be ahead of the game.