The recent Simply Italian Great Wines Tour proved to be a day long event at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Included were seminars, guided tastings and in the afternoon a walk around tasting with seventy Italian wineries participating.
We leaned long ago that at such large tastings it is best to center on some special regions to learn more about the wines and geography.
Increasingly popular in the U.S.is Prosecco,  Italian sparkling wine.  We visited the Zago Agricola booth and tasted three Prosecco, all from Friuli Venezia Giulia region which lies in the far northeast corner of Italy, close to the Adriatic sea.
We were interested in the wines of Tuscany principally since we had been there in the past.  Here we tasted the wines of Tenuta Tondaia  including Montecusso Rosso once again.
Besides individual wineries many consortiiums were present as well including Consorzio Vino Chianti Classico and Consorzio Vini di Romagna.
Sangiovese has always been one of my favorite wines so I met with Paolo Orioli of Tenuta Amalia who showed four Romagna  Sangiovese Superiore and Riserva D.O.C. wines.
The Simply Italian event, which was also held in New York, pointed to the fact that the U.S. is Italy's largest export market and that sales have continued to grow in recent years thanks to increased quality and value.