This weekend has given the chance to taste two bottles of Valpolicella Ripasso (you can add Classico Superiore if you wish). Most Valpolicella is made for quick and easy drinking and there is a huge jump up to Amarone, made from semi-dried grapes, and thus far weightier and hopefully more complex. In between is Ripasso.
Italy is blessed with a very large number of local grape varieties. One of the standard guides lists more than 500, others speak of thousands. More importantly, it has a significant number of great varieties – however much it’s fun to have something local, you still want it to make good wine or better. This
Italian half-marathon Read More »
Stephen Brook has an enviable task – to pick some of his favourite newly-released Barolo and Barbaresco and introduce them to the trade at a recent Decanter event entitled ‘Highlights of Piedmont’. He has to get his selection down to ten wines and so he can only nod at Dolcetto and Barbera as grape varieties
In praise of Nebbiolo Read More »
Sometimes a small loss is difficult to get past. We’ve probably all had the experience of losing something inconsequential which then just bugs you. How could you have lost that pen, that diary, that favourite pair of scissors? You search once, you can’t find it. You search again, it’s not there. Either you have a
When you are in a wine zone it makes sense to concentrate on the wines of the region itself. But of course, there are interesting wines to be tasted or drunk from adjacent zones or indeed from completely different parts of the world. Here are a few from our stay in Massa Marittima, Southern Tuscany.
From Napa to Massa Read More »
The thirty miles between Florence and Siena takes you through one of the most famous landscapes in the world of wine. But while the landscape has enduring appeal – gently undulating hills, now smart renovated farms, vineyards, cypresses, woodlands, more vineyards, medieval towns and castles – the wine is little understood. This is because the
Chianti classico finds its soul Read More »
The landscape of wine Before the wine and certainly before words about wine, the landscape of Piemonte – more particularly of the Langhe – is to be celebrated. The town of Barolo has the sleepy air of a small place which has inadvertently given its name to a world-famous product. But what really stands out
One of the endearing features of tasting wines in situ is discovering the range of wines produced. Most areas will have a wine style that they do really well, occasionally outstandingly. But alongside those wines will be competent wines, sometimes from local grape varieties, sometimes from the well-travelled international brigade. The Tuscan white Vermentino would
The good and the great Read More »
Lunch today with colleagues at The Contented Vine in Pimlico. What a great name for a slightly rambling wine bar cum restaurant on three or even four levels. Well executed, good value food and a well constructed wine list – Champagne, French classics, currently a whole page on Australia. We drank a very good Benevento
Fabulous Falanghina Read More »
After the Capezzana tasting, the riches of Decanter’s Italian day at the Landmark Hotel. This has to be the best one-day introduction to the Italian quality wine scene in the UK and maybe beyond. It’s big – with 86 listed producers – and pretty representative, 13 out of 20 regions present, with Sardinia a surprising
Piemonte 2-3 Toscana: A weekend in Italy part 2 Read More »