With about as many grape varieties in Italy as there are cardinals in the Vatican, it’s no wonder most wine buyers stick to a handful of the country’s best-known bottlings: sangiovese from Chianti, corvina from Valpolicella or nebbiolo from Barolo, perhaps. But these favourites represent only a fraction of Italy’s production. The peninsula’s vintners have been incubating new vine types since the Etruscan era began some 3,000 years ago, and in the ensuing centuries hundreds of varieties have rooted across Italy. We can thank a team of Tuscan agronomists for rediscovering many of these since the early 1980s, including more than 200 forgotten varieties in Tuscany alone. And we must thank those same agronomists for propagating pugnitello, a previously undocumented variety found growing on a farm in Chianti. Pugnitello comes to Ontario for the first time this month, via direct order from John Hanna & Sons, and the wine is excellent indeed. The available allocation is small, so it’s well worth trying a few other indigenous Italian wines to fill out the cellar. Some, like sagrantino, are rare and trendy and therefore expensive, while others—historically considered second rate—are wonderfully cheap. In our own new age of enlightenment—the most exciting wine era ever—quality is now possible everywhere. Become undaunted.