Recently, I had the opportunity to taste a slew of interesting Italian wines available here in Utah. The occasion was a visit from Dawn Gaudini, the Denver-based representative of Napa Valley’s Dalla Terra Winery Direct, a major U.S. importer of Italian wines. With tongue firmly in cheek, Gaudini refers to herself as “La Madonna del Vino”—and, while I can’t comment on her Madonna status, her wine knowledge is vast.

Next up was Marco Felluga Molamatto ($22), a blend of hand-picked Tocai Friulano, Pinot Bianco and Ribolla Gialla, wherein the Pinot Bianco is fermented in oak and the rest in stainless steel. The result is an elegant wine with a tropical fruit bouquet, hints of vanilla and a food-friendly minerality owing to the sandstone and loam rock terrain of the DOC Collio appellation. Marco Felluga’s family has been making wine in Italy for more than a century and, if you’re a Pinot Grigio lover, La Madonna del Vino says that Felluga’s Collio Pinot Grigio ($23) is a “wine drinker’s Pinot Grigio,” meaning that it actually tastes like something other than the insipid P.G. that dominates wine store shelves.

Although not served at this tasting, some of my favorite Italian white wines come from Alios Lageder, where traditional wine-making is combined with cutting-edge, modern techniques. Lageder’s “beta delta” Chardonnay-Pinot Grigio ($22) is a biodynamically produced blend with bright acidity that works wonders with fish, shellfish and a range of chicken dishes.

Meanwhile, back at lunch, we’d moved on to Masseria Li Veli Passamante Rosso Salento: 100 percent Negro Amaro from the Salice Salentino DOC. This is a soft, velvety red that tastes much more impressive than its $13 price tag would suggest. Try it with your favorite pasta and red sauce or braised short ribs. Also great with those ribs is Aia Vecchia Lagone ($18), a Bordeaux-style blend of Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Wild berries and cherries dominate the flavors of this well-structured wine, although I thought it finished a tad hot.

These wines are not for the faint of heart. They are big, tannic monsters, and it might behoove you to drink them wearing a suit of armor; phat, phatter and phattest is the way I’d describe them. By the time we got to the Barolo Lazzarito (recognized in Italy as a top Barolo cru since the 1700s), I felt like I had tiny pillows attached to my teeth, from the tannins. A colleague of mine said, “I’d like to taste this in about 20 years.” How often can you say that about a wine?

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