Includes Franz Haas, Ronco dei Tassi, Lini, Brancaia and More!

The business of selling expensive wines – from any region – has completely ground to a halt, creating numerous opportunities for readers to pick up higher-end wines at massively discounted prices. On a broader scale, however, the only bottles that are moving are those that offer compelling value.

Italy seems well-poised to capitalize on current events, as the country offers an enormous selection of delicious, value-priced wines. One of the curious results of the state of markets is that as wineries have reduced the production of their top-end selections in response to slackening demand, much of the juice that was once destined for those expensive bottles is now being blended with lower-end wines, improving their quality in a meaningful way. Simply put, producers are paying far more attention to their-value-priced wines than they ever have in the past, and it shows. ANTONIO GALLONI

Combine the recent top vintages experienced by virtually all of Italy's top viticultural areas with the emergence of more producers committed to making high quality wine, and the result is a veritable explosion of top-notch offerings. This is particularly evident in the wines from Sicily, Sardinia, and southern Italy (i.e., Apulia, Puglia, and Abruzzo). The emergence of good efforts from the hinterlands has given the consumer a veritable smorgasbord of good values, and, occasionally, world class wines.  ROBERT PARKER

This offer concentrates on a new shipment of Italian wines that exemplify outstanding values from across a variety of regions; many of which we rarely get the opportunity to highlight. Represented are wines from the Alpine regions in the north to the sunny shores of Sicily, Emilia Romagna and the Marche coast. All the wines exemplify just how far the Italian industry has travelled since the bad old days (pre-1980) when faulty and boring wine was more the norm. These days the sheer diversity offered by Italy’s regions is mind-boggling and the value one can still find defies belief.

We recommend every wine in this small offer and point your attention to the mixed-dozen option as a great introduction to Italian wines you may not have seen before!

Cheers

Michael McNamara