Wine with Leslie: Wines to match your bank holiday barbecue meats

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'I adore the Veneto region: the shimmering serenity of Lake Garda, the rolling hills. I even love the dank earthy smell of the Venice canals.' Picture: Casa Vinicola Sartori/Visit Veneto Wine with Leslie Veneto 

An Italian friend from Verona has been staying with us for a couple of weeks and, as a result, I have been drinking lots and lots of wine from Veneto. To be fair, she has not turned her nose up at any of the wines I’ve offered, but there is a little light in her eyes that appears when the wine I put on the table is from Italy, and it seems to shine even brighter when that wine is from her own region.

I should emphasise that this has not been a hardship. I adore the Veneto region: the shimmering serenity of Lake Garda, the rolling hills, and yes of course I love Venice, I even love the dank earthy smell of the canals in the heat of summertime. These days too the quality of even entry-level Valpolicella and Bardolino is excellent — both wines that could be rather indifferent when I first began drinking wine in the 1990s.