These are my five keys to loving Italian wine, distilled from my five-class course with Luca of Zigzando wines:

1. Eat, Drink, and be Maria

Italian wines are food wines. They are made to be enjoyed during a meal. That’s why they tend to be light to medium bodied in weight, so their flavors can complement rather than overwhelm the food. For the same reason, Italian wines — both red and white — tend to show a pleasing, refreshing acidity. I know that may sound icky. But at the right levels, it’s the acid in Italian wine that allows it to be so literally mouthwatering. A good Italian wine should feel like it’s washing through your mouth, clearing it, and readying it for your next bite.

So, don’t serve your lovely Italian vintage as stand-alone substitute for a cocktail. Serve it with food. The only exception might be prosecco, the delightful bubbly from the northwest of Italy, which is ideal as an aperitif. Still, a good dry prosecco is so light and lively I like to bring it down to earth with a handful of baked parmesan crisps.

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2. Learn your Major Reds

Many Italian reds are still named in the traditional way, that is, after the region they come from, rather than the grapes they’re made from. So especially when you’re looking at a wine list in a restaurant, it helps if you’ve learned the major regions and what kinds of grape varieties and wine styles they specialize in. For our class, Luca divided Italy into four zones: Piedmont; the Northwest (Alto-Adige, Veneto); Tuscany; and the south (Sicily, Puglia, etc.). Get one bottle from each of these regions, enjoy them on successive nights, compare them, and then branch out. Here’s my recommendation for your sample pack:

Piedmont: try a Barbaresco (made from the nebbiolo grape)
The Northwest: sample a Valpolicella (made from corvina, rondinella, and molinara)
Tuscany: dive into a Chianti (made from sangiovese)
The South: hunt down a primitivo (made from the primativo grape, the grandfather of zinfandel)

3. Don’t be Afraid of the Italian White

Italy may be best known for its reds, but if you think about it, it’s a country surrounded almost entirely by water. Seafood and white wine, therefore, are staples on a real Italian menu. America is awash in decent pinot grigio (it’s our number-one imort, actually), but take my advice and skip any name you recognize, like Cavit or Santa Margherita. Many smaller wineries in Italy who used to sell their grapes to the big industrial exporters are now bottling their own, and their wine will have a lot more character. A stand-out from our class was Cortaccia Pinot Grigio 2004 from Alto Adige. My notes read: “rich, surprisingly so, with a sweet ripe pear and melon flavors and a bit of honey or butterscotch. Luca says “floral” but I didn’t get that. But liked its long, clean, grapey finish. Mountain vineyards, 30 percent aged in neutral oak casks.”

4. Feel Some Southern Pride

It’s in the southern end of the boot where really interesting things are happening in Italian wine. The south epitomizes the trend in Italy of smaller growers dropping out of their cooperatives, building their own facilities, and bottling their own wine. And whereas the enormous harvest of the south used to find itself shipped north to flesh out the rossos and biancos of the north — sometimes legally, sometimes on the sly, but always anonymously — now the fruit from Italy’s southern vineyards is putting its own name on the marquee. In the case of the south of Italy, you have a better chance of seeing the grape variety on the label; unfortunately, because of their many years playing supporting roles, you probably won’t recognize it. Again, don’t be afraid. Try a nero d’avila from Sicily. Bust out with a falanghina from Campania. On of our faves from the class was a primitivo from a winery named Antica Masseria del Sigillo in Puglia (the “heel” of Italy). It was a 2004, and a mere $14 gets you a sassy, forward nose of currants, dried bing cherries, clove, and pepper, followed by loads of red fruit on the palate, and a decent finish.

5. Marches to a Different Beat

Just east of the central Italian state of Umbria lies the Marches, an emerging region that should be on your to-drink list. (It’s also the home of the husband in the couple that owns Vino Rosso. Also, don’t be misled by the pun in my subhead here. It’s pronounced “MAR-kay.”) Believe me, if you bring a bottle of wine from Marches to your next dinner party, you will impress people both because it’s going to taste great and it will be unusual. Get these notes from a Lacrima di Morro 2005, made from 100 percent lacrima grapes (which are native to the area) by a winery called Conti di Buscareto: “Showy nose! Flowers (violets, stargazer lilies), spice, pinot-like, some pine-ish aromas. Someone said, ’smells like Tequilla.’ Light to medium bodied, a little weird but in an interesting way, in the mouth. Foresty notes, some pleasant bitterness, bing cherry, again some bitter notes on the finish. ‘Like you were hiking in the woods and ran into a winery, and then tasted the wine in the field,’ said one taster.”