Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

"I stopped drinking French wine for a while when the French engaged in nuclear testing in Muroroa Atoll some years back," says Rainy Day visitor Peter Gale, originally from London, but now living in Copenhagen. His quandary: "The high and mighty attitude of the French now is a good excuse to stop drinking an over-priced, inconsistent product, but what are the alternatives?"

Given that I've written the odd word here about wine, I'm delighted to help. So, Peter, the solution, in a word: Italian. Brunello di Montalcino (1997) Siro Pacenti, Messorio (1999) Le Macchiole and Marzieno (2000) Fattoria Zerbina, to name but three, easily match the best French reds. The thing is that English-speaking wine merchants tend to ignore Italian wine for the simple reason that by the time they've understood the French appellation contr? system, their brains are too taxed to take on another foreign language. This is a shame because most Italian wine producers don't bother with such details as name of region and so on. They usually decorate the label with some exotic typography,a fancy brand name and the name of some small village and that's it. After that, you're on your own.

What the anglophone fan of Italian wine needs, therefore, is a good guide and Marco Sabellico and Daniele Cernilli's The New Italy: A Complete Guide to Contemporary Italian Wine is a good starting point. While waiting for Amazon to deliver that, you should visit the excellent Slow Food website and check out its wine recommendations (registration required). By the way, the Slow Food movement publishes what has come to be regarded as the essential guide to Italian wine, the annual Gambero Rosso. It appears in English as Italian Wines and the new edition, Italian Wines 2003 will be published in April in the US by Antique Collectors Club and in Britain by Grub Street.

Again, you have to allow for some Italian idiosyncrasy with the Gambero Rosso as the wines are not named by the producers but by their (often tiny) villages. Still, the reports on the individual wineries are thorough and the list of the top wines to which the guide's tasters give no, one, two or three glasses (tre bicchiere) according to quality is today's benchmark.

Piedmont is Italy's classic quality wine region but Tuscany is coming on strong due to huge investment in the industry and a run of remarkably good vintages. Here's a list of five stunning Tuscan tre bicchiere reds:

Nardo 2000 Montepeloso Vigna D'Alceo 2000 Castello dei Rampolla Giramonte 2000 Fattoria Castiglioni e Mantagnana Solaia 1999 Antinori Casasilia Chianti Classico 1999 Pogio al Sole

These Tuscan tre bicchiere reds are high in quality and, alas, in price so the best thing to do is compare prices before buying. The Wine-Searcher.com site is invaluable here. Many Italian merchants ship internationally and at keen prices so it pays to do some leg work. But who needs an excuse to visit Italy anyway?

Diarist of the day: Frances Stevenson, 24 March 1919

"D. [Lloyd George] told me a funny story about Clemenceau & Klotz [French minister of finance]. The latter is very unpopular, & a deputation of ministers waited upon C, asking that he should be removed as he was not playing the game. Clem. explained that he did not wish to dismiss him now, as it would unstabilise the Government. 'Very well, we must shut our eyes,' said they. 'Yes, said Clemenceau, 'one always shuts one's eyes at the most delicious moment. It was Clemenceau who also said that 'All the great pleasures of life are silent.' ."