The wines of Tuscany/Toscana
Ruffino is a large wine company with an annual turnover of €100m. It was founded in Pontassieve, the gateway to the Chianti sub-region of Rúfina, in 1877 and has since gone from strength to strength. The Riserva Ducale (‘reserved for the Duke’) line is named in honour of the Duke of Aosta. Back in 1890
Ruffino’s top wines Read More »
I recently had the opportunity to taste six Sangiovese wines in very good circumstances. They were mostly high-quality examples, bought from reputable merchants and stored in good conditions. They all came from the excellent 2010 vintage and, therefore, vintage variation was taken out of the equation. The aim was to see whether I and a
Sangiovese in 5 Tuscan regions and … Corsica Read More »
When do you drink those special bottles? Once you have built up a bit of a wine collection, the issue becomes when do you drink those special bottles? You may only have one of each. Or a bottle you have stored may have become become ridiculously expensive in the meantime. Or a bottle represents a
Taking the temperature of Italian wine: VinoVIP July 2017 Recently I was a guest of the Italian wine magazine, Civiltà del Bere (English website here), at VinoVIP 2017, held in spectacular Cortina d’Ampezzo, high in the Dolomites. You can see my pictures of Cortina here. I contributed to a session on Communicating Complexity (of
Taking the temperature of Italian wine Read More »
It is often said that wine is best shared with friends. In the light of this when I was sent sample bottles of wines from Viticcio I decided to hold a tasting with a small group of wine lovers, experienced tasters, to exchange views on the wines. Here is what we thought. By way of
Viticcio in Chianti Classico and Maremma Read More »
Bring a Special Bottle Christmas 2016 celebration Keen wine tasters in North West Hampshire meet in a range of formats – Andover Wine Friends, BBC (‘bring a bottle club’), TWITS (don’t ask), TWITS Diploma group and, of course, informally. To these can now be added BSBC, bring a special bottle club. This pays homage to
Bring a special bottle, 2016 Read More »
Francesco and Luca Bracali have created something extraordinary in their restaurant just outside Massa Marittima.  Theirs is the last property in a very, very ordinary row of houses in Ghirlanda. The garden outside with its stylish planting hints that this is somewhere special but the real magic is inside.  In the kitchen of Francesco and the
Bracali – cuisine and wine Read More »
My recent post trumpeted my last-minute preparation for the MW tasting exams. I have now done the exams, the list of wines have been published but we are still some months off knowing the results. It is now time to reflect on the experience of things that go right in the exam and, sadly more interestingly,
Things that can go wrong … in the MW tasting exam Read More »
MW exams loom. What does the MW student do in the final week before re-sitting the tasting exam? Three papers of two hours and 15 minutes each, 36 wines in total to be discussed in detail, all served blind. The task is to discuss their origin, the varieties they are made from, how they were made,
Final week before MW exams Read More »
In June 2016 Andover Wine Friends were treated to a great line up of single varietal Syrah wines. It was fairly comprehensive (with apologies to N America) and showed what good wines are being made a range of price levels. We finished the evening with two older wines, one of them truly outstanding. I tasted
Grand Syrah tasting Read More »