THERE WERE approximately 1,200 lots of Italian wine that came to auction in 2011 – less than 3% by volume of all auction lots last year. Nonetheless, for fans of some of the scarcer Italian wines this might be the only opportunity to acquire certain bottles. While a number of wines of Brunello di Montalcino come on to the market, because these are widely distributed among many producers including Biondi Santi, Frescobaldi, Giulio Salvioni, Livio Sassetti and Antinori, they do not form part of the sample used in this article.
For the purposes of analysing producers, labels, values and vintages the list has been restricted to some top dozen or so which make up a major proportion of all auction lots. Amarone has also been excluded because lots are still very limited (Allegrini, Dal Forno and Quintarelli being the main producers) and the numbers of lots, especially after taking into account specific wines and vintages, are small.
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