* BRUNO Raffaelli can claim to have helped educate the Scottish palate

since he arrived here in 1965 -- at least as far as wine is concerned.

Bruno arrived in Scotland as a waiter but when he opened his first

Italian restaurant in Edinburgh 20 years ago he noticed that his

Scottish customers ordered a bottle of Lambrusco or Asti Spumante with

their meal no matter what they were eating.

He decided to widen his customers' taste by offering them a wider

selection, and began to import lesser-known vintages.

The imports began as only a few hundred cases but other Italian

restaurants began to ask Bruno if he could supply them too. Today

Raffaelli Wines in Sighthill Estate, Edinburgh supplies about 100

restaurants with something like 100,000 bottles of wine every year.

Bruno considers he has seen a big improvement in the wine-drinking

habits of the Scottish public. ''I now import 100 different wines, with

the prices varying between #3 and #30 a bottle,'' he says. ''Scots now

drink less but better wine: there has been a definite move towards

quality.''

He describes wines such as Lambrusco as ''beginners' wine''. ''Young

people are used to drinking orange, and coke,'' he says, ''which is why

their palate finds sweet wine more acceptable.''

Wine-producing countries such as Italy and Germany produce sweet wine

aimed at the British market, and in the region where Lambrusco is

produced the wine is naturally dry and is consumed by the local

population in this form.

Bruno arrived in Scotland after finishing catering college in London

and touring Europe to study eating habits.