Piemonte

Is Alba DOC the same as Barbera d’Alba? Barbera d’Alba, Dolcetto d’Alba and Nebbiolo d’Alba are all well-known Piedmontese DOCs. The former two are important as they represent Barbera and Dolcetto in and around Barolo and Barbaresco, even if there are also specialist DOCGs in this area for Dolcetto. By contrast, Alba DOC is an

I am about to set off to visit the small DOCs in Piemonte’s Western Alps: Valsusa, Pinerolese and Colline Saluzzesi. To call these little known would be an understatement. I am not sure any journalist has visited them recently, apart from the indefatigable Ian d’Agata. They also boast some extremely rare grape varieties, including Avanà,

Vinitaly returns to Verona Vinitaly is the Italian national wine fair, usually a behemoth with 50,000 visitors a day, held in Verona. After two years when Covid prevented the fair from taking place, April 2022 saw its return. Mercifully, it seemed rather smaller in terms of visitors. For example, while the trade does not have

Before tasting Albarossa wine, it is good to know something about its story. It is the product of crossing Chatus (also known as Nebbiolo di Dronero) with Barbera in 1938. The aim was to confer some of the elegance and prestige of Nebbiolo onto an offspring of Barbera. Later it was discovered that one parent

The first day of a new year, beginning 2022, feels like a good time to give you an update. The current Covid situation looks bad but hopefully–and who can know?–2022 may allow us to do rather more things in person than 2021 did. Most of all I wish you a healthy and productive new year!