In the United States in the 1970s it was easier to find Italian wine at a student party than on the menus of the country's top restaurants.
Although the Bel Paese has always made some excellent wines, 30 years ago the main focus was on producing as much as possible to satisfy the demands of the lower end of the market, experts say.
Italian wine gained a reputation for being cheap plonk as a result.
Since then a sea change has taken place.
Winemakers like Tuscany's Piero Antinori switched attention to quality, reducing yields when necessary and adopting modern techniques like the use of steel fermenting tanks.
The were rewarded with strong sales by a public that started taking its wine more and more seriously.
Their success encouraged others to follow suit and sparked off a virtuous circle.
Italian wine became better and better, which boosted its popularity, standing and price on the international market, which encouraged more producers to make quality their selling point.
As US magazine Focus commented last year: "the quality of Italian wine is improving at a palate-pleasing rate".
A report released this week confirmed the progress that has been made.
The report, prepared by the Unioncamere association of Italian chambers of commerce, showed that Italian wine exports went up 68% between 1995 and 2005.
Sales around the world were worth $3.38 billion in 2005 and Italy has 18% of the international wine market, second only to France with 35%, according to the report.
"This sector has transformed itself profoundly to successfully respond to difficult challenges, making innovation and quality the keys to success," said Unioncamere President Andrea Mondello.
"We pulled this achievement off in the best possible way, showing that innovation can be combined with tradition as long as the bar of quality is lifted to make us more competitive".
And while American students now have to look for cheaper options for their parties, Italian wine is thriving at the upper end of the US market.
Exports to the United States - Italian wine's biggest market - are expected to set a new record this year after breaking the $1 billion threshold in 2006, according to the Italian Wine and Food Institute.
Experts say part of the success is down to the fact that Italian wine-producers have become more skilled at marketing their produce on international markets in recent years.
More and more of them are getting the DOC quality-assurance label for their wines too in order to enable consumers to distinguish them from inferior products.
The Italian government and producers are also increasingly active in uncovering the multitude of fake Italian wines, which claim to be Chianti or Valpolicella, but are actually produced outside the Bel Paese.
The pirate wines are doubly damaging, as they hit Italian wine's good name and steal customers too.
The Unioncamere report predicted that exports will continue to grow in 2007 and 2008 with the assistance of well-targeted marketing campaigns.
And while drinking Italian has never been more popular, making wine in Italy has become fashionable too, attracting a number of foreign personalities from the worlds of business and entertainment.
Time-Warner CEO Richard Parsons recently acquired the Tenuta Il Palazzone vineyard in Montalcino where he produces an excellent Brunello, mostly for his own use.
Musicians Mick Hucknall of Simply Red and Jim Kerr of Simple Minds both have vineyards on Sicily, while French actress Carole Bouquet has a vineyard on the island of Pantelleria where she produces the island's famous dessert wine 'passito'.
Legendary US singer-songwriter Bob Dylan has lent his signature to a wine produced at his request that has proved to be a hit.
Created by the Le Terrazze winery in the Marche, it was named after his 1974 album Planet Waves.
