Both Italy and France have been the favorite territories for the cultivation of wine for centuries and, above all, in the modern era, for their export.
The wine culture of these two countries has grown slightly differently but for centuries the love of wine has been part of the culture in a broader sense.
The passion with which a vineyard is worked, in Italy as in France, has always been a family dedication but also a refined work in many cases, to make that vineyard a source of excellent wines.
French wines, however, differ from Italian ones due to an attention that began at the beginning of the twentieth century on certain production techniques that led to cultivations and bottlings of the highest quality. If you just think of Champagne, one of the most refined and well-known French wines in the world, you think of a fine product, which from the ancient experiments of Dom Pérignon has reached the excellent levels of recent decades, establishing itself as a wine of high quality and quality.
French wine production is the result of a long history and is struggling to become dynamic. It focuses above all on highly requested products that are always very true to themselves. Italian wines, on the contrary, over time have been able to establish themselves or reinvent themselves, starting from a wealth of varieties of native grapes unique in the world and with the precise intention of enhancing the wine production of each individual Italian region, focusing on typicality, identity and versatility.
Comparison of productions
French wines
French wine production essentially focuses on some of the highest quality wines. Examples include the famous Champagne, Bordeaux, or even Bourgogne, in the rouge version produced from Pinot Noir grapes and the blanc version from Chardonnay grapes.
Then there are the whites from the Loire Valley, produced with Sauvignon Blanc and Chenin Blanc grapes. The wines of Alsace, based on Riesling, Sylvaner and Gewürztraminer, and the reds of the Rhone Valley, produced from Syrah and Grenache grapes, as well as the whites made in the same region from Viognier grapes. Added to the list are Provence, known for its rosé wines, Languedoc-Roussillon and Corsica.
These are the main wine-growing regions. The same ones for centuries, faithful to their protocols, but always able to bring out the best from each vintage. The main vines used in France are around 210, to produce more or less 3,000 different wines on 840,000 hectares of vineyards.
Italian wines
Italy is a country that, in relation to wine production, is more open to experimentation and more willing to focus on the production of less complex wines, but which can better satisfy the different needs of the market.
Each of the 20 regions of Italy boasts a rich wine production and an equally rich variety of vines. There are 540 Italian varieties used to produce approximately 4,000 distinct types of wines, on an area of approximately 600,000 hectares of vineyards.
More types of wines are produced on a smaller vineyard area. This is thanks to the wealth of native varieties that our country boasts, the result of centuries of peasant traditions which involved the use of local grapes to produce wines suitable for pairing with regional products and gastronomic preparations.