Wines of Italy
In Italy, wine with food is a way of life. Italians have been making wine for thousands of years, and know a thing or two about enjoying it. There's nothing quite like a loud Italian dinner with great food and friends, where everyone is slightly more animated than usual from the four glasses (each) of Chianti.
There are also great practical advantages to Italian wine, mostly due to the popularity and abundance of good Italian restaurants in the United States. What else but Italian wine for your Italian dinner?
Wine quality in Italy has improved dramatically over the last century or so, when Italians decided to export competitive fine wine. In the past, the focus was on making a whole lot of wine from whatever was available so the entire family can get drunk and argue loudly at dinner, so the wine was relatively unremarkable (with exceptions, of course). Modern Chianti is much bolder and zestier than old Chianti (the blend proportions have changed: it used to be nearly a third white wine; now it is almost entirely red Sangiovese), because of the modern focus on really getting quality from the grapes instead of just making a whole lot of wine.
