Not everybody knows that Italy, during the Roman times, was called ENOTRIA which litterally means "Land of wine". This name originated even before the Romans, when the ancient Greeks used to refer to the southern part of Italy as Oinotria. Italy is without any doubt the place which gave significant relevance to wine. In fact, this product is part of the Italian history, culture, land, tradition and economy. The Romans have been responsible for the diffusion of vines all over Europe and their improvements in winemaking techniques are valueless. Probably, also if France has the finest reputation in winemaking, some of the best wines of the world come from Italy. Italy is worldwide famous for the beauty and quality of its products: of course wine is one of them. Even though vines are not native of Italy, the ancient habitants of this land have been able to craft amazing wines, starting an incredibly strong tradition in winemaking that gave Italy its present status. It is important to notice that in Italy this same thing happened with several other food products such as coffee or pasta: Italians are masters in perfectioning and beautifying food. Nowdays Italy, with 49 million hectolires of wine produced in 2004, is the second biggest producer in terms of quantity after France. Italy, especially in recent times, focused its attention on wine quality. The general idea that many of the Italian wines have not reached yet the status of fine wines is not correct. Italian wines, especially in United States are often misrepresented in store's shelves. Over 3000 different clones of grapes are present in Italy. Most of these are indigenous varieties. It would probably take a whole life to taste every single wine produced in this country.
