When you think Italian wine most people envisage a hot day spent lazily quaffing on terraces and verandas besieged by plates of bread, olives, freshly picked vine tomatoes and other assorted piattini.
But switch these summer pleasers for classic beef ragu, a meaty pizza, or rich, tomato-based pastas and the best of the summer wines turn to the most idyllic picks for autumn, and we have a smashing number to kick things off.
Made with indigenous local red grapes from Verona, the Masi Campofiorin 2014 offers the ripe red cherries and perky raspberries we so crave at this time of year.
Produced in the foothills of the Austrian border Masi Campofiorin is a blend of Corvina, Rondinella and Molinara that make a wine that is as complex as it is smooth.
The wine is double fermented, using the appassimento of semi-drying a proportion of the grapes used in the second stage, to add richness, body and aging potential. You are left with a lively wine with a long, berry fruit finish.
Drink with hearty red meats, pastas that pack a punch and pizzas with all the trimmings.