wine

The winemaking tradition in sunny Sicily dates back as far as four thousand years. Over those millennia the Sicilians, named for the settlers who introduced agriculture there, have raised wine grape growing to the level of the Italian Renaissance artist.

>One of three main Italian winemaking regions, Piedmonte lies at the confluence of the Tanaro and Borbera rivers, 45km (28 mi) southeast of Turin in northwest Italy. Moderately remote in this crowded modern world, it's braced by the Alps to the north and the Apennines to the south.

Stretching from the hills of the Apennines to the banks of the Po River to the shores of the Adriatic Sea is a distinctive Italian winemaking region called: Emilia-Romagna. Famed for its cooking, the area boasts some of the most fertile plains for grape growing in Italy.

When people settled in the new North American territories, they took with them everything familiar. Those coming from the wine region in Europe, carried grape vines with them, these vines took hols and so the story of wine in U.S.A. began.

Among the AVA (American Viticultural Areas) in Oregon we count the Willamette Valley, Umpqua, Rogue and Illinois Valleys and parts of Walla Walla and the Columbia Gorge shared with Washington.

If you only buy wine for your own pleasure or for a particular event, and take care to consume your bottles within a reasonable time frame, don’t worry, almost all bottles will survive in a cupboard for around 12 months -the wine is likely to deteriorate if left longer.

In the US, California is justly famous for its wines. So famous, in fact, that it comes as a surprise to some to find out that New York has long been a serious competitor in terms of quality.

California is the main wine producer in the United States of America. Many a grape variety has found a new home there.

France is the country to beat in the wine producing world, an indisputable leader with global influence. Other lands have advanced great lengths and some are coming close to certain French wines, but no other has the climate and terrain to produce such an impressive and varied selection of great wines.

This is a long narrow wine area that can be divided into the north where the wine is dominated by Syrah (Shiraz) and the south where Grenache dominates. The south often represents better value and the wines can be fruitier. The Rhone Valley is responsible for about 9% of the wine produced in France.