ALBA, Italy — Forty feet below street level in this northern Italian city, an ancient stretch of wall supports a ceiling blackened by mold. The wall was assembled from mortar and locally quarried rocks about 50 BC as part of a fortress protecting the city from invaders.
Today it protects the cellars of the Pio Cesare winery. It is a national historic monument and inspires wine maker Pio Boffa with great pride.
It is this ancient heritage that the older Italian grape growers and wine makers like to emphasize. They acknowledge that French wines are a worldwide standard, but they argue that the charm of their wines is their uniqueness and their heritage. As they point out, Italy was a wine-making country for centuries before the Romans planted vines in France.
Still, even Italian wines change. Today they are better than they've ever been, a product as much of science as soil, as much of experimentation as tradition.
This may be seen at the Bricco Rocche vineyard of Ceretto, just south of Alba. To anyone who thinks of Italian wine in terms of peasants pressing grapes with their feet, it is a shock: Gleaming high-tech stainless steel tanks and a hand-laid tile floor are only the visible clues to the drama beneath the cork.
The standard image of cheap Italian wine in the old raffia-covered bottle of Chianti is long gone. So is the idea that Italian wine must be red, partially oxidized and aged in ancient barrels that left a musty imprint.
Today some of the finest wines from Italy are white, and some from grape varieties Americans are not yet familiar with. Some of the best Italian reds are aged in new (French-made) oak barrels, and even the traditional wines such as Chianti and Barolo are being made unlike any wines of the past.
But the real shock is that prices are going through the roof. Though the wines are excellent, Italy has long been known as a source of bargains, and the latest trend is disconcerting to consumers aware of Italy's ability to make quality wine at reasonable prices.
Still, interest in upscale Italian wines is high--and growing--in the United States, and especially so in Southern California. "Italian wines have been a huge thing for us," says Don Schliff, president of Wine Warehouse, a major Los Angeles-based wholesaler. "Sales are off the chart."
