More patience please! Who gives some time to Italy's red wines, can admire their enormous aromas.

There are many possibilities to group the wines of the world. White or red wine, dry or sweet, feminine or masculine, the list is endless. When it comes to Italy's red wines, you can divide them into wines that are simply "delicious". These are the ones to pair the Italian cuisine, those offered to a wide audience in every Italian restaurant to enjoy with pizza and pasta. But there are also the great classics, to which not everyone approaches first. The red wines, which can be in their youth quite nasty, but hide behind their scratchiness so immense depth and complexity, that it is worth waiting for their drinking. But with patience this is such a thing.

For those of you who have seen the movie "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", you will find the slogan of the clever hotel director, Dev Patel, who always says to his guests: "This is the end and if you are not happy it’s not yet the end!" A motto that applies to most Italian red wine enthusiasts, whose pleasure depends on the amount of bottle maturity. Above all, the majestic Barolo from the Nebbiolo grape variety, which shows its famous flavours only when it has stripped off its enormous tannins. So, if you open the bottle too early, you can always guess the potential of a great wine and be annoyed because you could not wait for the "happy end". It is pcisely this ability to gain complexity in the bottle which distinguishes the great classics like Barolo or Brunello from the wines which are simply "delicious".

The home of the Barolo lies between the Swiss Alps and the Mediterranean, in the north of Italy. Here in Piedmont the Nebbiolo grape variety finds the best conditions on the calcareous soils and in a mild, continental climate. During the day, it is warm and sunny enough for the grapes to ripen but at night cool temperatures ensure that acidity and refined aromas are pserved. Small differences in the soil profile or orientation of the vineyards have an effect on the taste of Nebbiolo. Why the Winery Vietti already in the 1960 years as a pioneer bottled the wines separately according to single vineyards. Since then names like Villero or Lazzarito have a good sound in the wine world. However, Vietti always put a great deal of emphasis on Castiglione, which is a classic blend of wines aged in large wooden barrels. It is a cuvée of different single vineyards and is the most repsentative of the entire Barolo area. "While our Crus stands for their terroir, the Castiglione is our business cards from the Barolo," says Luca Currado, the cellar master, explaining Castigliones' particular position in his portfolio. A wine enchanting with its typical aromas of hedge-rose, wild flowers, tobacco, truffles, autumn leaves, red fruits and tar, as well as a powerful and polished tannin.

Another great pioneer from Piedmont is Elio Altare, who, in addition to modern cellar techniques, was the first winemaker to use small French oak barrels for the expansion. Its goal was to make the often-massive Tannin structure of the Barolo more flexible and earlier accessible without losing any potential for ageing. This innovation had polarized the winegrowers at that time in modernists like Elio Altare and traditionalists, who decided to use a harsher extraction of the tannins during the fermentation and long-term maturation in large barrels, which often resulted in a loss of all fruit aromas. In the meantime, this polarization no longer plays a role. After all, no one skips the knowledge of a good wine making and on the other hand no one is keen on the over-oaked wines that were produced in the 1990s. Elio Altare has always been a great master of the Barolo and Barrique and has thus proved that tradition does not mean to remain unreflected but to take the most vital part from the past and to lead innovatively into the future. The strong and high-class Barolo is best to pair with hearty food. If you like strong, braised game dishes, you will appciate the benefits of a mature Barolo and no wine fits better to the other Piedmonts specialty, the white Alba truffle.

Other top wines are produced in Italy from the Sangiovese variety, which is common throughout Central Italy. Above all in Tuscany, it produces quite different wines in different appellations. Above all the Chianti, which lives with a fresh acidity and sour cherry fruit, which are interwoven with Mediterranean spice. The wines from Montalcino come more smoothly. The region is further south and has a warmer and drier climate, which makes the tannin and the acidity of the Sangiovese more rounded. Within the region, however, there are differences. Thus, the vineyards in the north-east of the region are higher and therefore somewhat cooler. The "La Casa" peak of the Caparzo vineyard is located there. In the approximately 5-hectare big vineyard the vines can dig deep into the so-called "Galestro" soil, a mixture of clay and slate. The combination of these natural factors makes the "La Casa" one of Brunello's most elegant and Burgundian styled wines. More fruit-driven and smooth are the Brunello of Poggi del Sole and the Cantina di Montalcino. The wines come from all parts of the region, even from the warmer, south-eastern part and live from their full-bodied fruit, juicy structure and can also be enjoyed young.

The fertile region of Veneto, sometimes referred to as the "Garden of Italy", is known to many wine friends for frothy Prosecco, tasty Pinot Grigio and the full-bodied red wine Amarone della Valpolicella. The vineyards of the Valpolicella region are located around Verona, where the simple red wine Valpolicella is made from several indigenous varieties, but also excellent Amarone is produced here. A wine that gets its taste mainly by its elaborate winemaking method. For the full-bodied red wine, the grapes are dried for about 3 months before being processed into red wine. During this time, the berries lose water and concentrate. Moreover, the tannins are already soft and round in the grape. This is the secret of a good Amarone. This thick layer of tannin, which melts like dark chocolate in the mouth. Added to this is a high alcohol content of around 16%, which gives Amarone a more harmonious dry taste. If the Amarone, like the "Punta di Villa" from Mazzi, has matured for 30 months in wooden barrels, the wine is ready to drink when it comes to the market. Thus, the Amarone is the red wine classic from Italy, where, as a wine lover, one does not have to wait too long for a "happy end".