(Wine-Searcher) - Three tried and true regions dominate as wine searches remain sluggish.

People might still love Italian wines but outside a few classic areas, many regions are being left behind, according to figures from Wine-Searcher’s database.

While searches for Italian wines have increased slightly in the past three years, they have only just kept up with the growth in overall searches on the site, which have grown from around 90 million in 2013 to 122.5m last year, a rise of around 36 percent. Searches for Italian wines grew by 37 percent.

However, the vast majority of interest in Italian wine lies in two geographical areas – Tuscany and Piedmont account for around half of all searches for Italian wines and, within those two regions, Barolo, Brunello and the Toscana IGT – which accounts for the Super Tuscans – make up 35 percent of searches.

The only region outside these that is showing any positive movement in Valpolicella, based on the rising popularity of Amarone. However, this only accounts for 4.7 percent of searches and that is a historical high.

Among the top performers, Barolo led the way in the last quarter of 2015, with 655,000 searches, or 12.17 percent of all Italian wine searches. That figure has been tracking upwards since 2013, when it accounted for some 10 percent of searches. The search figures took a sizable leap in early 2014 when critics declared the just-released 2010 vintage one of the best ever, sparking a revival of interest in Barolo that hasn’t stopped since.

The Toscana IGT is the second most searched-for appellation, making up 12.14 percent of searches, its lowest level in the past two years, although it has remained in a relatively steady range of between 12 and 15 percent of all searches over three years.

Brunello di Montalcino has enjoyed steady growth over the past three years, moving from 6.6 percent of Italian searches in the first quarter of 2014 to 10.3 percent in the last quarter of 2015, again boosted by 100-point reviews for some of the top wines from the 2010 vintage, which were released in 2015.

The best of the rest of Italy's wines are in something of a retreat; Bolgheri finished 2015 with 4.7 percent of Italian searches, down markedly in percentage terms from previous years (its highest percentage of searches in the past three years is 6.1 percent in the third quarter of 2013), but up in overall search numbers.

Chianti Classico is holding steady, having accounted for around 4 percent of Italian searches in the past three years, while standard Chianti finished last year with searches down 40 percent on the previous year. Barbaresco held steady, at around 3 percent of searches.

The apparently stagnant level of interest in Italian wine might well be reflective of a perceived stagnation in the image of Italian wine, too, according to Steven Wickens from Hong Kong merchant Wickens & Co.

"I think they have a bit of an image problem amongst younger drinkers who view Italian wines as being untrendy," he said.

"We don't focus on Italy that much, but I would mention that mature Barolos and Barbarescos are doing well in Hong Kong though none of our PRC [Chinese] clients are into them all that much. Not that we aren't trying."