Wine Box: The new Italians

Do you know your Alps from your Elba when it comes to Italian wine? Whatever your palate or pocket, Italy almost certainly has a wine to match.

The days of basic Valpolicella, Soave and bottles of raffia-covered Chianti are long gone. Quality is constantly improving and there are plenty of real surprises.

Here are a few readily available bottles worth trying, but for those more eager to forage, keep an eye out for producers from Piedmont, Tuscany and Trentino. Good hunting.

Sainsbury's Classic Selection Barolo 1996 (£12.99). Good Barolo will never be cheap, but it's worth it for those remarkable Nebbiolo-grape flavours of cherry, plum, tobacco and chocolate. A good-value humdinger to match a rack of lamb cooked rare.

Bidoli Cabernet 2000 Briccolo, Friuli (Waitrose Wine Direct, £5.99). The classy Bidoli winery has dispensed with its usual austerity and come up with an intense blackcurrant and herb-filled mouth-warmer. Fantastic with soft cheese.

Araldica Dry Muscat, Monferrato 2001 (Safeway, £4.99). Muscat is the classic white grape used for fizzy Asti. But this is a still wine with great aromas of honeysuckle and elderflower. It's dry, delicate, with heaps of citrus flavours and a natural partner for seafood.