Previously exclusively Italian vines take root in new home: Australia

An Australian winemaker once told me he'd been to an "international" nebbiolo conference in Valtellina - a small wine region in northern Italy - at which the locals were "upset that people from the other side of the world had been invited". I can understand the indignation: if you had a treasury of varieties as rich and varied as Italy's, you'd want to keep it all to yourself.

Italy's hundreds - no, thousands - of grape varieties are surprisingly under-explored beyond the Adriatic peninsula but one country that is not ignoring them is Australia. Jane Faulkner is chief of judges at the Australian Alternative Varieties wine show. She says that every year around 90 different grape varieties are entered. "Obviously they're not all Italian - let's face it, Australia is fairly francophilic - but we now have hundreds of entries and it's important that people realise these alternative varieties are no longer a side show. We've got going."

Australian wine is being made from aglianico, fiano, dolcetto, sangiovese, nebbiolo, montepulciano, teroldego, negroamaro, brachetto, arneis, vermentino, grecanico, glera (the prosecco grape) and sagrantino, to name just a few of the Italian grapes now carving new identities for themselves Down Under.