We Americans are raised almost from birth with an intimate knowledge of our country’s various fast food selections. Even small details like the difference between a Wendy’s, McDonalds, and White Castle burger—square, $1, guaranteed stomachache, respectively—are ingrained in our cultural food knowledge.That’s how Italians are with wine. A native Italian does not drink cocktails or beer or soda for dinner, he drinks wine—or so boasted my hosts on a recent trip to three-Michelin-star restaurant La Pergola, located at the top of the Rome Cavalieri Hotel. Keep this field blank Enter your email address You may unsubscribe at any time. La Pergola’s chief sommelier Marco Reitano—who this year received the title of best sommelier from Italy’s gourmet guide Identità Golose—is an expert among experts. The La Pergola cellar is home to 3,000 labels—all of which has been tasted and then purchased either by his staff or Reitano himself. “Our selection has representation from each Italian region, representation from every type of Italian grape, and it’s also representative of world wines,” Reitano explains. 

We asked Reitano for the 10 best Italian wines, and we gave him a catch: They all had to be available for purchase in the United States either in a wine shop or by mail order. Here are his picks.Cà del Bosco Franciacorta Annamaria ClementiThis wine from Northern Italy is full-bodied with notes of citrus and a refreshing finish—perfect for an Italian-style special occasion dinner. dry white wine number“It’s often compared to the French Dom Perignon,” Reitano says.best selling wine 2015Pair with: Parma ham or spaghetti carbonaraBuy online: $65.19; wine and food italyVilla Raiano Fiano di AvellinoItaly’s Campania region isn’t only famous for its gulfs and the gastronomic town of Naples. best place to buy wine in london

It’s also known for the strong-flavored white Fiano grape, which is grown almost exclusively in Southern Italy. “This 100% Fiano from the southern Campania region is dry, refreshing, and mineral, with apple and walnut flavors,” describes Reitano.Pair with: Mushroom risottoBuy online: $203.88 per case; best cheap healthy wineVenica Ronco delle CimeClosely related to a sauvignon blanc, the Friulano grape is one of the oldest vines in Italy’s northern Fruili region. top wine brands on instagram(It also goes by the name Sauvignonasse and Sauvignon Vert.) best red wine for xmas dinnerDry and fruity with an herbal finish.buy wooden wine boxesPair with: Sea bass carpaccio or sautéed clamsBuy online: $30.50; best wine regions canada

Pieropan Soave Classico La RoccaIf you’re browsing your local shop for a bottle on this list, look for this common label. “With exotic flavors and a rich body, this is among the most long-aging Italian white wines,” Reitano says. It’s pressed from 100% garganega grapes, local from the Veneto region.Pair with: Grilled lobster or scallops saladBuy online: $42.22; Giacomo Conterno Barolo MonfortinoIt’s only appropriate that this wine from old vines is “probably the most long aging Italian red wine,” according to Reitano. Monfortino is a classic Barolo-style wine—designed to be aged in casks for many years and made with native Italian nebbiolo grapes. What’s the payoff of patience (and the hefty price tag)? A deep, mineral flavor with wildberry and spices.Pair with: White truffle ravioli or grilled lambBuy online: $399; Gaja Barbaresco“From the world-famous Gaja winery comes a classical bodied nebbiolo—rich and mineral, with a balsamic finish,” Reitano says. Translation: It’s a wine that’ll put hair on your chest.

Pair with: Roasted duckBuy online: $95.49 per case; Zenato Amarone della ValpolicellaFor the classic wine and cheese pairing, offer up this traditional red. The cherry fruit and a spicy tobacco finish complement any strong Italian cheese like Parmesan or pecorino.Banfi Brunello di Montalcino Poggio all’OroAs every beginning student of wine knows, every vintage has its own characteristics. So what’s a vintner to do when certain year’s weather doesn’t cooperate? They don’t sell it. That’s why you’ll only see this available in specific vintages—and why you can trust that any bottle will be of the highest quality. The taste: “Power and balance with a lot of fruit and soft tannins.”Pair with: T-bone steakBuy online: $109.99; Donnafugata Passito di Pantelleria Ben RyèIf you like sweet wines, try this sugar-rich red from the small island of Pantelleria in Sicily. “The wine has a dense body with lots of dry fruit flavors,” Reitano describes.Pair with: CannoliBuy online: $44.99;

Incisa della Rocchetta SassicaiaReitano calls this Bordeaux-style blend from the coast of Tuscany “the king of Italian wines.” It’s known as a Super Tuscan wine—a Chianti-style wine that didn’t technically meet Italy’s strict regulations to be officially labelled as Chianti.Pair with: Baked pigeon, chicken, or game henBuy it: Available at specialty wine shops for around $80/bottleIt’s official: One of the world’s best wine stores — especially if you are a fan of Italian wines — is right here in Washington. And you may have overlooked it. A. Litteri has been selling Italian foods to Washingtonians for 90 years. The store’s current location in the old warehouse district of Northeast D.C. is just a block from the uber-hip Union Market, but it’s a time capsule to those family-owned neighborhood stores where regular customers are greeted like friends as they sample an aged Gorgonzola or order a cold-cut sandwich that would make Sinatra sing with joy. [At Florida Avenue Market, kitchen supplies and cheap eats]

And there’s wine, of course. Enter A. Litteri through a door that could be easily overlooked if the wall around it were not painted with the colors of the Italian flag, and the first thing you encounter is the wine closeout section. These are cheap bottles, including a $5 pink Catawba from Indiana and several other inexpensive wines a vintage or three beyond their prime. You might find something cheap and interesting here, but turn right and head to the main wine section. There, among claustrophobic shelves reaching to the ceiling and seemingly on the verge of collapsing on you, is one amazing wine selection. This is the domain of Ken Nankervis, who took over A. Litteri’s wine program in 2012 and gradually transformed a selection based on closeouts to one of the best — especially for Italian wines — in the city. [An Italian market near you: Go for pizza and subs, but there’s much more] Or maybe the world. Last month, A. Litteri was awarded the Leccio d’Oro prize from the Consorzio del Vino Brunello di Montalcino in Tuscany as the best wine store outside Italy.

The Consorzio naturally favors stores that specialize in Italian wines in general, and Tuscany’s in particular, but the award was fitting recognition of Nankervis’s efforts to build A. Litteri’s wine selection into a world-class program. “When I got here five years ago, all this space was dedicated to pinot grigio,” Nankervis told me on a recent visit to the store, as he waved at a space of shelving about the size of a hefty nightclub bouncer. “It took me two years to get rid of it all.” Today, Nankervis’s selection of about 3,000 wines from around the world is crammed into a space the size of a bomb shelter. It includes more than 30 indigenous Italian white-wine grapes, with names such as pecorino, erbaluce, grechetto and falanghina. There are several esoteric red varieties as well. Two-thirds of his wines are Italian, but Nankervis also offers small but high-quality selections from other regions, including Spain, Portugal and South America. (The U.S. selection is perhaps a little weak.)

“People come in and ask for pinot grigio or chardonnay, and I just say, why?” He champions the sheer variety available from Italy. “One of the reasons Italy has so many categorized grape varieties is the Catholic Church,” he says. “They were so good at keeping tabs on people and what they were doing, that when people find some forgotten variety they can look in the church records to see who was growing it back then.” There’s a reason the Brunello consorzio took notice. “I have 65 Brunellos from 2010 in stock, and 130 Brunellos overall,” he said. “I went to every store in Montalcino” — the quaint Tuscan hill town that is home to Brunello — “and none carry as many Brunellos as we do.” Mike DeFrancisci, the third-generation owner of A. Litteri, credits Nankervis not only with boosting wine sales but also making the store attractive to younger consumers, including those who frequent Union Market nearby. “With the area changing, our clientele has totally changed in the last seven or eight years, and Ken has been a big part of that,” DeFrancisci said.

“We never had anyone here to sell wine and do wine and food pairings. Wine sales have increased dramatically since Ken joined us.” Nankervis, 49, discovered his love of all foods Italian when working at Cafe Milano in Georgetown. He then worked several years with Winebow, an importer and distributor specializing in Italian wines, before moving to A. Litteri. While upgrading the store’s wine selection, he also rebuilt the shelves and put in new flooring. Every Saturday, he offers a tasting of 12 wines with 12 foods drawn from the store’s larder and his imagination. A consultation with Nankervis can be gruff and to the point. He’ll ask how much you want to spend, and what recipe you’re cooking. He’ll throw out phrases such as “wicked minerality” to describe a wine, and “blue cheese and Amarone is a match made in heaven” for a favorite food-wine pairing. It’s impossible to talk to him and not get hungry. As I interviewed Nankervis, we were interrupted frequently by Silvia Buch, a precocious 2 ½ -year-old in search of a breadstick, who was visiting the store with her parents, Ethan and Kristin, and her infant sister, Maria.