Italian-Americans seemed to dominate the program Monday night in New York City when Wine Enthusiast honored its 2007 Wine Star Award winners at a well-orchestrated reception and dinner for more than 300. Ray Chadwick, the CEO of multinational wine company Diageo Chateau & Estate was Man of the Year, and I doubt if he’s Italian, but many of the other award winners were.

It got me thinking about the powerful influence Italians have exerted on the world of wine, and especially in the US.

First, I was seated at a table full of East Coast distributor executives, several of whom were Italian-American, including one who is a cousin of the folks who own the famous Pio Cesare winery in Alba. After a couple of generations in the US, Bart Pio said his family still keeps in touch with the family back home in the land of Barolo and white truffles. I believe everyone at the table except my wife and I owed their living to the Italian-American Gallo family, since they distribute tons of Gallo-produced and imported wines.

Joe Gallo was honored as the importer of the year, for the Gallos’ growing portfolio of imports from Italy, Spain, France, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. He’s the son of Ernest, the co-founder of the E & J Gallo empire based in Modesto, Calif., who died just last year. Adam Strum, who is not Italian-American, but who is the publisher and editor of the Wine Enthusiast, paid a tribute to Ernest that generated applause even from the tables of Gallo competitors.

John Mariani, the long-time chief of Banfi Vinters, won the Lifetime Achievement Award. He’s the son of Italian immigrants, and built a wine merchant business that his father founded into the biggest US wine importing firm of its day, as well as helping transform winemaking in Tuscany through its ownership of Castello Banfi.

The Indelicato family of California won American Winery of the Year, for their DFV wines. Chris, Jay and Cheryl Indelicato are the third generation of the family making wine in California. They have recently launched a collection of good to excellent wines with memorable names like Irony Chardonnay (because the three thought they weren’t going to work for the winery), Gnarly Head Zinfandel (because the vines in Lodi are like, totally gnarly) and 337 (because it’s a Cabernet Sauvignon made from clone 337 vines).

Another Italian, whose family actually stayed in Italy, Carlo Ferrini, was honored as the Winemaker of the Year, for his work in Tuscany and consulting all up and down the boot.

The Italian influence in wine in America seems remarkably strong for a country as diverse as ours, and one in which industries tend to be dominated by Anglo-Saxon Americans, but the Italian dominance makes sense when you think about it. Italy has probably the longest history of winemaking of any country that still produces much of it. Probably only Greece has a longer history of wine production, if you rule out the real home of wine in the region of Iraq, Iran or Georgia.

When the big wave of Italian immigration hit the US in the 1890s through 1920s, these people found a country with good vineyard land but with hardly any vineyards. They found a country with a big, increasingly affluent population that mostly loved to drink alcohol, but had barely ever had the chance to try wine, the oldest and best alcoholic beverage.

Coming from a country where everyone either grew grapes and made wine or had a relative or neighbor who did, the Italian immigrants did what they knew how. They started growing, making, selling and distributing wine. The French and the Spanish would have done the same, but they never immigrated in significant numbers, because conditions at home weren’t as bad as they were in Italy.

The Italian-Americans also knew how to cook. They brought more interesting food than the meat and potatoes of early 20th century American cuisine, so they started thousands of restaurants which became logical outlets for Italian and Italian-American wines.

It’s been more than 100 years since the Italians came, but we still taste their influence every day. If it weren’t for them, we’d only be drinking wine three or four times a year, and then only at French restaurants. As much as I like the beer of my German ancestors and the whisky of my Scottish forefathers, I’m quite glad the Italians came.

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