A taste of Italy that tickles the tastebuds

SEPTEMBER is harvest time across the northern hemisphere.

And as it is the busiest time of the year for wine makers. There are more practical times to pay them a visit, but there are none more revealing.

As I write this I am just on my way back from visiting the vineyards and wineries of the Proseco and Franciacorta regions in Northern Italy - more of these wines in future weeks.

Some of the companies I saw were big, glitzy, and impressive affairs with expensive newly-built and pristine underground cellars.

They had centuries-old villas banqueting rooms and impressive well- oiled PR machines.

Others were simple farms run by simple farmers who offered plain but wholesome lunch in a simple farmhouse.

They stored their wines in small, old cellars and harvested their grapes in the age-old, traditional way.

Some wine makers told stories that were hard to believe, others left us to taste their wines and make up our own minds.

The point is that none of these things was necessarily a pointer to the quality of the wines.

It is so easy to be influenced by the PR, the big name, the big fancy villa, the big price tag.

The wineries are great fun and very educational to visit - but the only way to really know if they are worth their salt is to close your eyes, close your ears, and taste their wines.

It would, of course, be so handy if I could say that the flashy houses were all show and the homely farms all substance. But that wasn't true either.

The quality of the wines depended on the makers' care and commitment to what he was doing.

And unfortunately you can't see inside their heads.

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