Because the range is so vast, they almost inevitably included the good, the bad and the ugly. But as with so many countries, quality has improved across the board in recent years, and the last two categories have shrunk dramatically.

In my own relatively limited tasting experience, I have come across both the exquisite and the execrable, but these days there is much to be appreciated.

Italy has more than 2,000 native grape varieties, and a climate ranging from the cool north to the warm and sunny south.

Apart from occasional holidays in the country, most of us rely on the tastebuds of buyers employed by supermarkets and retailers to provide us with a decent choice, and Italy was strongly represented at a recent Sainsburys press tasting.

The company's 2009 Italian range includes three new reds, as well as new vintages of old favourites.

Michelle Smith, its winebuyer for Italy, reports that the country's

2008 harvest was up by about five per cent in volume, after a big reduction the previous year.

This, she says, will allow Italy to compete better this year, despite tough trading conditions brought about by sterling's fall in value against the euro.

Last year, the country saw strong growth in the UK, and if the new arrivals I tasted are anything to go by, the trend should be set to continue.

San Colombaio Vino Nobile di Montepulciano 2005 (13.5 per cent, £10.99, Sainsburys) is a stunning rich red from Tuscany with a real dash of Italian flair.

It's made by Baroncini, a family-owned producer established more than five centuries ago,from sangiovese grapes.

The wine spent two years in barrels before bottling, and it offers a generous helping of black cherries, plums and violets, with vanilla and spice provided by the oak ageing.

Maybe July is the wrong time of year to be talking about game and roast dinners, but this is the wine for them. Meanwhile, I shall be happy to drink the occasional glass with some small pieces of Parmesan and a couple of water biscuits. Recommended.

From a deep, succulent red to a sprightly white, and the lively new vintage of Taste the Difference Gavi 2008 (12 per cent, £6.99).

Aromatic, with a light accent on citrus and peach flavours, its grapes come from 35-year-old vines.

OK for fish, or as a chilled summer aperitivo.

Grapes for the Connubio range of wines come from vineyards between the city of Verona and Lake Garda, in northern Italy. The cooler climate is ideal for light white and rose wines, not too heavy on alcohol.

Connubio Pinot Grigio 2008 (12 per cent, £6.99) is light, dry and easy drinking.

Green apples and hints of lemon feature in the taste, providing an accompaniment for summer salads, or fish and chicken dishes.

Sainsburys' new reds include a a Chianti classico - Campo Al Moro 2007

(13.5 per cent, £8.99), from the Cecchi estate, in Castellina.

It offers classic, concentrated, dark Chianti tastes, and - I have to mention the same flower again - aromas of violets, which are a requirement of these wines.

Made from 90 per cent sangiovese and 10 per cent other varieties.

The primitivo grape provides big, bold, wines, full of juicy fruit, not dissimilar to the American zinfandel, which it's closely related to.

A full-blooded version is provided by Taste the Difference Primitivo Del Salento 2007 (13.5 per cent, £5.99).

This is almost 100 per cent primitivo grapes, and produced exclusively for Sainsburys by the award-winning wine co-operative Cantine Due Palme.

Robust, up-front tastes of bramble fruit and damsons, it is recommended for powerfully-flavoured Italian dishes.

Piccini Chianti Superiore 2006 (13 per cent, £7.99), a well-made, dry red from Tuscany, is also recommended. Its light, silky smooth character, sightly spicy, is interestingly complex, and the sort of thing that would go with barbecued steaks or good sausages.

I rarely quote anything I read on a bottle label, but in this case I thought the description 'iconic' was quite apt.

That's the word still used to describe the spaghetti western mentioned in the first paragraph.

I must remember to recommend the wine to one of its stars, Clint Eastwood, if I ever bump into him - something I almost did when he visited Oxford to address the Oxford Union a few years ago.

I was in the city to take my daughter, then a starving undergraduate, out to lunch.

I would have preferred to sneak in and listen to Clint, perhaps using my press card to join the serried ranks of journalists, but I did my paternal duty instead, of course.

A student apparently asked the actor if he was as good a shot with a .44 Magnum as his Dirty Harry character. He said he could probably hit members of the press at the back of the hall, so perhaps I was well out of it.


What do you think? Click here to send a letter to news@chiobserver.co.uk or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP