Shady Lane Estate Winery “This tastes too much like wine…” That was what my wife said. But when that is the only criticism there is for a bottle of fruit wine that you happen to be drinking, then things could be worse. Fruit wines have a well-earned reputation for being sweet and simple. In fact, […]
Ciliegiolo: Jewel of the Maremma
Ciliegiolo, Jewel of the Maremma For all my talk – and writing – about little-known or forgotten native grapes, there is another category that is no less worthy of closer examination. Not forgotten, perhaps, but overlooked. An ensemble player – often in the scene playing a supporting role, but seldom in the spotlight: the blending […]
Maremma, Che Vini!
Maremma, Tuscany’s Underestimated Corner Driving south from Siena, I enjoyed experiencing the landscape and climate of Tuscany undergo nuanced changes. The vegetation became more spaced, the fields wider. The hills became more rolling. It was palpably warmer. Below the vines, the grains and the cypress trees the soils, which I obviously was not able to […]
Wine Glasses: What Do You Need?
Glasses What glass is best for your wine? This remains a hot topic, and one that isn’t completely clear (forgive a terrible pun). This is really quite needless, since the point of a wine glass is simply to be a vessel to enjoy a drop. So allow me to answer the basic, burning question quickly […]
Utiel-Requena: Bobal Steps Out of Bulk Wine’s Shadow
Utiel-Requena: Bobal Steps out of the Shadow of Bulk Wine The scene: southeast Spain, near to the Mediterranean A scant 70 kilometres (as the crow flies) from the heaving beaches and ancient attractions of València lies the comparatively quiet hinterland home of Utiel-Requena, one of Spain’s Denominación de Origen (DO) wine areas. You may not […]
Wine Myths #3: Old Vines Make Better Wine
Wine Myths, Misconceptions and Misinformation #3: Old Vines Make Better Wine Nearly everybody knows that “old vines” make better wine. If you didn’t know that before, you heard it here first. But is it true? The answer is, unfortunately, a very qualified “yes and no”. Come now, if it had been a straightforward answer you […]
Tannic Treasures of the Italian Peninsula
Five Tannic Native Italian Grapes Anybody who knows me and my wine-drinking habits knows that I really enjoy tannic red wines. I seem to gravitate towards grape varieties that offer a lot of natural tannin, and I tend to prefer my reds a little younger than many of my colleagues. I enjoy a couple of […]
Coravin Test Round Three – The Vintage Needle
Coravin Test Round 3 – The Vintage Needle Now this was exciting. Coravin has, in their arsenal, a smaller-bore needle that is specially-designed for use with “older” wines. The corks of said wines are more likely to have lost some of their resiliency, and the wines themselves are perhaps more delicate than younger versions, requiring […]
A Surprise from South Africa – “Seriously Cool Cinsault” from Waterkloof
If you think about wines from South Africa, chances are good that a grape called Cinsaut (or, if you prefer, CinsauLt) isn’t the first thing that crosses your mind. No worries, I won’t judge you for that; it wouldn’t be the first thing I thought of, either. There are plenty of better-known grapes emerging from […]
Montecucco: Sangiovese’s best-kept secret
What is Montecucco? We are in the warm south of Tuscany. Here, sandwiched between two well-known denominations specialising in Sangiovese, you will discover a third – much newer and very much less well-known – that benefits from similar advantages to its well-heeled neighbours, and which is producing some very characteristic, Sangiovese-based wines of high quality. […]