One of the best things about Italian wine lists in Italy is the Champagne.  Wines we would never find in the US, for prices so low it will make you shed a happy little tear.  Small-production Champagne from intriguing little producers and big name houses from classic vintages alike, all casually compiled in epic wine lists like little treasure-troves of fun.

Italians love their bollincine; bubbly toasts and frothy clinking glasses are the only way to begin an evening with friends in the piazza.

These are the wines that signify celebration.  Wines that fuel the atmosphere with life-affirming joy and self-contentment.  These are Champagnes that bolster you- that give you the courage to order that 1996 Bruno Rocca Barolo, or even the 1982 Giacomo Conterno…